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Ethno-mycological Studies

No. 1

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SOMA

DIVINE MUSHROOM
OF IMMORTALITY

R. Gordon Wasson

HARCOURT BRACE JOVANOX'ICH, INC.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART O.VE

SOMA: DIVINE MUSHROOM OF IMMORTALITY

I. The Problem 3

II. The Fly-agaric of Eurasia lo

III. The Ground Rules of the Search la

IV. Soma Was Not Alcoholic i 5

\'. The Roots, Leaves, Blossoms, Seed of Soma: Where Are They ? 1 8

VI. Soma Grew in the Mountains 22

\'II. The Two Forms of Soma 25

VIII. Epithets and Tropes for Soma in the Rg\'eda 35

IX. Soma and the Fly ^ . 61

X. Words Used for Soma ii\the^BigVfda 62

XI. Miscellanea 67

XII. Mani, Mushroom, Urine 71

XIII. The Marvelous Herb 77

PART TWO

THE POST-VEDIC HISTORY OF THE SOMA PLANT

by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty

I. The Brdlimanas and the ^rflwfa-sfitrfls 95

II. Later Sanskrit Works pg

III. Early European References xoq

IV. Mid-Nineteenth Century

V. File Number 118

VI. The Turn of the Century

VII. Mukherjee and the Bhang Theory i^g

Vlir. Later Researches in the 20th Century 130

VII

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART THREE

NORTHERN EURASIA AND THE FLY-AGARIC

I. The Fly-agaric in Siberia: the Testimony of Explorers,

Travelers, and Anthropologists 151

II . The Linguistic Aspect: a Puzzling Word Cluster 164

III. Europe and the Fly-Agaric 172

Epilogue: The Tree of Life and the Marvelous Herb 205

Acknowledgements 223

★

EXHIBITS AND INDEX

1. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Preliminary Note

A. Explorers, Travelers, Anthropologists

231

[I]

Kamiehski

233

[2]

‘Denbei’, a Japanese castaway

233

[3]

von Strahlenberg

234

[4]

Krasheninnikov

235

[5]

Steller

239

[6]

Georgi

240

[7]

de Lesseps

241

[8]

Sarychev

242

[9]

Kopec

243

[lo]

von Langsdorf

246

[11]

Erman

251

[12]

von Maydell

254

[13]

von Dittmar

256

[14]

Kennan

258

[15]

Lansdell

259

[16]

Jadrintsev

260

VIII

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[17]

Patkanov

260

[18]

Sljunin

260

[19]

Enderli

261

[20]

Vanderlip

264

[ 21 ]

Jochelson

265

[ 22 ]

Bogoraz

273

[23]

Itkonen

279

[24]

Lehtisalo

280

[25]

Dunin-Gorkavich

280

[ 26 ]

Karjalainen

281

[27]

Bergman

285

[28]

Donner

286

[29]

Worth and Jochelson: Koryak and Kamchadal Tales

287

[30]

Shamanic Hymn translated from the Vogul

302

B. The Linguistic Aspect
Preliminary Note

[31] Boas

[32] Munkdcsi

[33] Kannisto
[28a] Donner
[24a] Lehcisalo

[34] Uotila

[35] Bouda

[36] Steinitz

[37] Hajdu
[3S] Balizs

[39] Pedersen

C. Secondary Sources

[40] Hartwich

[41] Eliade

[ 4 i] Brekhman and Sem

305

306
306

308

309

310

312

313

314

315
319

321

326

334

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SCANDINAVIAN WRITINGS

Preliminary Note

341

[ 43 ] Odman

343

[ 44 ] Schiibeler

348

[ 45 ] Mdrner and Hildebrandsson

351

[ 46 ] Nordhagen

353

[ 47 ] Kuylenstiema-Andrassy

355

CITATIONS FROM THE RGVEDA

359

INDEX

363

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

XI.

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

XV.

Soma

The Immortal Hdri
Tawny Yellow Pdvamdna
Sur) a: The Sun
Agni: Fire

He Abandons his Envelope

He Makes of Milk his Vesture-of-Grand-Occasion

By Day, He Dazzles; By Night, Silvery White

The Hide Is of Bull; the Dress, of Sheep

The Single Eye

Mainstay of the Sky

King, Having the Filtre for Chariot; With his Thousand Knobs
He Conquers Mighty Renown
Tongue of the Way

Twin-leafed Ling C/iili from above.
Twin-leafed Ling Chih from below.

Ce/iectioH R. G.VVflsson

XVI. Noin Ula Textile.

XVII. Noin Ula Textile, detail

Courtesy of Hermitage Museum. Leningrad

XVlIl. Rubbing of Stone Carving, Han Dynasty, with Nine-leafed JLiHgC/»/t.
Courtesy of Rolf Stein, Esq.

XIX. Yung-lo chen Mural, detail. Maid of Honour attending Celestial
Emperor and holding vase with Ling Chih in nvo forms. Yuan
dynasty, early 14th century.

XX. Philosopher Contemplating Ling Chih. the Divine Mushroom.
Painted by Chtn Hung-shou (1599-1652). probably in early years
of Ching Dynasty. Courtesy of Wango Weng. Esq., New York

XXI. Fresco of Plaincourault. The Temptation in the Garden of Eden.
Copied by Mme Michelle Bory

XXir. Hieronymus Bosch: the Hay-wain. Upper part of left panel of
triptych. Courtesy of Prado Museum. Madrid

3 ('

45
50
52

4 «

Sf>

180

196

ILLUSTRATIONS

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

Fig. I. Ling C/ii/i, Normal and Abnormal Specimens.

Fig. 2. Ling Chih with nine twin leaves. Reproduction of illustration
from Stifcifewsd-LL Japanese book printed in 1850 discussing Ling
Chill, in Japanese ‘reis/it’. Written by Suigetsu Kan-6.

Fig. 3. ‘Soma’, as commonly represented through later ages: Sarcostem-
ma i)revistigtnij, Ephedra vulgaris, and Periploca aphylla.

Fig. 4. ‘Haoma’: illustration from James Darmesteter’s translation of
the Avestfl. 1890, Vol. i. Pi. 2, p. lvui. Said to be of life size.

Fig. 5. ‘Soma’ : illustration taken from Zenalde A. Ragozin : Vedic India,

1895. p- 172-

Fig. 6. Wooden grave-markers can-ed to represent bird and toad’s leg
motifs from 19th centur)- cemeteries in Lithuania Minor. (After
Marija Gimbutas: Ancient Sytnfcolism in Lithuanian Folk Art, p. 32:
Mem. of Amer. Folklore Societ)-, Philadelphia. Vol. 49, 1958)
Fig. 7. Toad motifs on prehistoric pottery’.

1. Left: Neolithic pot with incised toad form. Second half of 3rd
millenium B.C. Danubian culture in Czechoslovakia. 2. Right:
Figure of toad on bottom of early iron-age pot from Central
Germany. (After Marija Gimbutas : Ancient SymMism in Lithuanian
Folk Art, p. 35, Mem. of Amer. Folklore Society, Philadelphia,
Vol. 49. 1958)

Fig. 8. Chimney-sweep and Fly-agaric. {Courtesy of George L. Phillips, Esq.)
Fig. 9. Seal-skin vessel for gathering urine impregnated with inebri-
ating virtue derived from fly-agaric, in use among the Koryak.
(After Waldemar Jochelson. The Koryak, Mem., Amer. Museum
of Natural History, 1908; p. 483)

Fig. 10. Drawing made by a Chukchi of the wanderings of ‘fly-agaric
men'. (After Waldemar Bogoraz, The Chukchee, Mem., Amer.
Museum of Natural History, Vol. vn. Part 2; p. 282)

105

122

124

190

191

204

270

276

XII

ILLUSTRATIONS

MAPS AND LINGUISTIC CHART

P«Jri ill

facing page

A. Map of Eurasia, showing habitat of certain tribes in Europe and
Siberia, and also the distribution of the birch and pine genera

B. Map of the Ob and Yenisei Valleys, showing the distribution of ^
Uralic tribes and the Kct (Yenisei Ostyak)

c. The Chukotka: Far Northeast of Siberia, showing distribution
of the Kamchadal, Koryak. Chukchi, and Yukagir peoples

D. Chart of Uralic Languages and Others

166

XIII

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PART ONE

SOMA

DIVINE MUSHROOM OF IMMORTALITY

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THE PROBLEM

I N the second niiilenniuni betorc our Christian era a people who
called themselves ‘Aryans’ swept down from the Northwest into
what is now Afghanistan and the \'alley of the Indus. They were
a warrior people, fighting with horse-drawn chariots; a grain-growing
people: a people for whom animal breeding, especially cattle, was
of primary importance; finally, a people whose language was Indo-
European. the \’edic tongue, the parent of classical Sanskrit, a collater-
al ancestor of our European languages. They were also heirs to a tribal
religion, with an hereditary priesthood, elaborate and sometimes bi-
zarre rituals and sacrifices, a pantheon with a full complement of gods
and other supernatural spirits, and a mythology rich with the doings
of these deities. Indra, mighty w’ith his thunderbolt, was their chiet
god. and Agni. the god of fire, also evoked conspicuous homage. There
were other gods too numerous to mention here.

Unique among these other gods was Soma. Soma was at the same
time a god, a plant, and the juice of that plant. So far as we know' now,
Soma is the only plant that man has ever deified. (The Mexican Indians
seem to regard the hallucinogenic plants, whether mushrooms, peyoll,
or morning glories, as mediators with god, not as a god. The Nahua -
Aztecs and other groups speaking the same tongue - called the mush-
rooms teo-nandcatl, ‘god’s flesh’, but the mushrooms do not figure
in their pantheon.) In the course of the Soma sacrifice the Juice w'as
pounded out w’ith stones on resounding planks and was drunk by the
officiating priests. Soma -the three Somas- inspired hymns vibrant
with ecstasy, composed over centuries by priests who lived in centers
remote from each other. In the end, at an early period in the first
millennium before Christ, these hymns were gathered together, and
the canon of that text has come down to us intact. Compared with
ours, the Vedic civilization %vas simple, but their verses - the figures
of speech with w'hich they embellished their thoughts and feelings,
their play with the meanings and sounds of w’ords, the rules of their

PART ONE • CHAPTER I

prosody- were sometimes subtle and sophisticated. Some of the hymns
are of so exalted, even delirious, a tenor that the modern reader is
led to exclaim: ‘This surely was composed under the influence of a
divine inebriant’. It takes little perception to sense the difference in
tone between the awe-inspired hymns to Soma and the rowdy drinking
songs of the West prompted by alcohol.

In the hierarchy of Vedic gods certain others took precedence over
Soma, but since Soma was a tangible, visible thing, its inebriating juice
to be ingested by the human organism in the course of the ritual, a
god come down and manifesting himself to the Aryans, Soma played
a singular role in the Vedic pantheon. The poets never tire of stressing
Soma’s sensuous appeal. In appearance it was brilliant, reminding
them of the Sun, of Fire, of the rays of the Sun, of the round bowl of
the heavenly firmament, ‘the back of the sky’. The dried plants were
first freshened with water. They were then macerated with stone
pestles, and the tawny yellow juice as it came coursing through the
conduits of the press was compared, in the hyperbole of the day,
with thunder.’ The priests, after imbibing the juice, seem to have
known, for the nonce, the ecstasy of existence in the World of the
Immortals. The Divine Element was not just a symbol of a spiritual
truth as in the Christian communion: Soma was a miraculous drink
that spoke for itself.

A book of 1028 hymns is our sole contemporary source of infor-
mation about the period it deals with. There is agreement on the
text, but many words are of doubtful meaning and doubly so in
their allusions that often escape us. They have been preserved for us,
both words and melodies, by oral tradition; by achievements of the
human memory that have no parallel in other cultures, preserved
better than our ancient learning in the manuscripts with which our
Western scholars are familiar. When a Brahman schooled in the an-
cient tradition sings us a hymn from the RgVeda, with intonation
precisely right, there is reason to think that it is as though we were
listening to a tape recording 3,000 years old. These hymns, still elicit-

I. Parjanya. ihe god of thunder, was the father of Soma, according to one tradition. RgVeda IX 8i’,
Abel Bergaigne, La Religion V^dique, Vol. i, pp. I72-3*

THE PROBLEM

ing the utmost reverence among countless Hindus, constitute the
earliest monument in their religious and literary heritage, as well as
one of the earliest cultural legacies of our own Indo-European world.
As the eminent French Vedist Louis Renou has said, the whole of
this immense collection, known as the RgVeda, is present in mice in
the themes that Soma presents to us.‘

But what manner of plant was this Soma? No one knows. For
twenty-five centuries and more its identity has been lost. The Hindus,
probably for the reasons that will emerge as my argument progresses,
allowed this authentic Soma to fall into disuse and early on began to
resort to sundry substitutes, substitutes that were frankly recognized
as such and that to this day are met with in India in their peculiar
religious role. The West discovered the Sanskrit and V^edic cultures
almost two centuries ago. For two centuries we have been absorbing
the lessons that India has to teach us, in linguistics, in mythology and
philosophy and religion, in literature, art, history, anthropology,
archa^olog)^ This difficult assimilation is still going on. though pos-
sibly at a slower, more sober pace than in the enthusiasm of the
initial discoveries.

But the identity of Soma is as obscure today as two centuries ago,
and what is more, this mystery is compounded by what I will call
the mystery of the mystery of Soma. When I first embarked on the
problem in 1963 , 1 could hardly believe what I found to be the situa-
tion. Here is a clear-cut botanical question - a psychotropic plant that
calls for identification. The clues should be in the Vedic hymns. True,
the poems contain no botanical description such as a scientist would
ask for. Those remote singers were no modern botanists. The poet-
priests of the RgVeda were composing for contemporaries, certainly
not for posterity 3,000 years away, and their imagery and terms often
elude our understanding, just as our hymns would make hard going
for our collateral descendants 3.000 years hence. But the hymns are
all shot through with Soma, and 120 of them are entirely devoted to
the plant-god. The hymns are not make-believe about a fictitious
plant: if ever there was genuine poetry about a genuine plant, here

I. Vidiquts rt Pdmnitnes. E. dt Boccard. Ediicur. Paris, tome u. 1961. p. 8.

PART ONE • CHAPTER I

it is. W'as it possible that so much could have been written by lyric
poets about a plant, over centuries, in many centers of priestly activi-
ty, and its identity not be revealed? It was no secret for the poet-
priests. How extraordinary it would have been if all of them, number-
ing scores, perhaps a hundred, had withheld from their verses the
revealing descriptive terms, the tell-tale metaphors, that the trained
reader today needs to spot the plant! But this did not happen. All
that has happened is that no ethno-botanist with an interest in psy-
chotropic plants has applied himself to the examination of the hymns.

The Vedic culture has been primarily a subject for Vedic scholars
and secondarily for those scholars who interest themselves in com-
parative mytholog)’ and religion. The specialists in Vedic learning
have included a handful of brilliant men, of extraordinary perception,
who are assured of a lasting reputation by the works they have left
behind. They have been tilling a field, a rich field it is true, in a remote
frontier province of the humanities, and they must often have felt
that they were leading an isolated existence. The early translations
of the RgVeda were execrable. Only now, in the annotated trans-
lations of the late K. F. Geldner and the late Louis Renou, does a
student with no Vedic possess a rendering that permits him to sense
some of the nuances of the original. ‘ (Certain it is that I, for one,
could have done nothing without Renou’s translation and commen-
tary.*) Throughout the dawn and early morning of Vedic studies, in
the 19th century, many cultivated people in the West, not merely
Vedic scholars but educated laymen, knew at least what the Soma
problem was. More recently, whenever the subject has been broached,
scholars and editors have sighed and wearily turned away: the Soma
question has dropped into oblivion simply because it has seemed to
defy solution. One would have thought that students of religion

1. In The Soma-Hymns of the RgVeda S. S. Bhawe has begun an excellent translation into English,
with a lengthy commentary. Oriental Instinite, Baroda. 1957. i960. 1961. He has published 70 of the
hymns to Soma, out of 114 m Mandala IX.

2. His translation, so far as it had gone before his untimely death in August 19^, had been completed
before I had an opportunity to lay before him my thesis, in three long talks that I had with him in
Paris and his country house in the Eure, in the spring of that year. He found my thesis sidnisanu
and encouraged me to prepare as quickly as possible a full-dress presentation, but naturally he did
not commit himself.

THE PROBLEM

would have focussed on it. but our contemporary religious thinkers
(with notable exceptions) have no sympathy with drugs as a way to
religious experience, though accepting a role for other external aids
such as music, architecture, and liturg)-; and (unconsciously of course)
many of them are nothing loath to gloss over and ignore the historical
role of Soma in the higher reaches of our own religious history. Yet
it cannot be gainsaid that \'edic culture with Soma unidentified is the
play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. The identification of Soma
remains one of the chief desiderata of Vedic studies. That the question
continues to be slighted constitutes, as I have said, the mystery of the
Soma enigma.

There is no sure evidence that in N’edic times Soma was drunk by
others than the priests. By a deliberate decision the priests must
finally have decided to discontinue the use of the Sacred Plant. That
familiarity with the genuine Soma seems to have been confined to the
priesthood would make the enforcement of such a decision effective,
and the very memory of the plant itself was finally lost. For more
than two millennia the hymns to Soma have been sung and revered in
the absence of Soma. The record of these intervening centuries is
strangely, significantly, silent about the holy herb. In India discussions
of such matters were confined to the priestly circles: others were unin-
formed and uninterested. The priestly compositions that have come
down to us show acute concern over the relative merits of various sub-
stitutes. but no concern over the plant itself. Moreover, the Hindus tra-
ditionally have not been interested in the facts of history, considering
them irrelevant when weighed in the balance against the future
incarnation of the individual s soul. Brahmans among my friends in
India have assured me that the many substitutes for Soma used over
the large expanse of the sub-continent and through the ages were
always known by the inner circles of the priestly caste to be substi-
tutes. This cannot be proved but must have been a fact. The contrast
between the ecstasy of Soma inebriation as sung in the hymns and

the effects, often vile, of any of the many substitutes was always too
glaring to be ignored.

To the Europeans knowledge about Soma came late. It was not

PART ONE • CHAPTER I

until 1784 that the word itself, spelled 5om, made its debut on the
European scene, in Charles Wilkins’s English translation of the Bha-
giivad GitJ. {The earliest citation for Soma that the Oxford Diction-
ar)- gave was 1827.) In the i83o’s European scholars finally awoke to
the myster)- of Soma’s identity, but their efforts to solve the problem
from that day to this have been singularly futile. They have merely
worked over the Brahmanic discussions of the substitutes, apparently
under the misapprehension that the original Soma must have closely
resembled the substitutes, if it was not in fact one of them. Or they
volunteered suggestions pulled out of the air, flouting the RgVedic
text and Brahmanic practice. In Pan Two of this book Wendy Doniger
O’ Flaherty gives the revealing story of this search.

And so in the fullness of time it has fallen on me, a retired banker,
to be greatly daring and to submit to the intellectual world a new
theor)' of Soma s identity. As I entered into the extraordinary world
of the RgVeda, a suspicion gradually came over me, a suspicion that
grew into a conviction: I recognized the plant that had enraptured the
poets. For this purpose the text of the hymns, the epithets and tropes
pertaining to the plant, are abundantly clear. As I went on to the end,
as I immersed myself ever deeper in the world of Vedic mytholog)',
further evidence seeming to support my idea kept accumulating. By
Jove, I said, this is familiar territory!

At the same time there hovered constantly in my mind’s eye the
admonitory finger of Tristram Shandy as he warned against the
occupational hazard of those who advance hypotheses:

It is in the nature of a hypothesis when once a man has conceived it,
that it assimilates evetything to itself, as proper nourishment, and
from the first moment of your begetting it, it generally grows
stronger by everything you see, hear or understand.

And so, while well aware of the perils that attend my enterprise, I
present my case. If I am wrong, how quickly will my proposal be
forgotten ! If I am right, I claim the privilege of adding a new and
exciting chapter to the w'orld’s knowledge of the remote past, the
proto-history of our own Indo-European culture.

THE PROBLEM

In a word, my belief is that Soma is the Divine Mushroom ol
Immortality, and that in the early days of our culture, before we
made use of reading and writing, when the RgX'eda was being com-
posed, the prestige of this miraculous mushroom ran by word of
mouth far and wide throughout Eurasia, well beyond the regions
where it grew and was worshipped.

THE FLY-AGARIC OF EURASIA

My candidate for the identic)- of Soma is Amanita muscaria (Fr. ex L.)
Quel., in English the fly-agaric, the Fliegenpil^ of the Germans, the
j»nfe/iofNer of the Russians, the fausse oronge or tue-mouche or crapaudin
of the French, the brilliant red mushroom with white spots familiar
in forests and folklore throughout northern Eurasia.

This is the first time that a mushroom has been proposed in the
Soma quest.

The fly-agaric is an inebrianc but not alcoholic. As far back as our
records go, it has been the Sacred Element in the shamanic rites of
many tribes of northern Siberia, tribes that are concentrated in the
valleys of the Ob and the Yenisei, and then, after an interruption,
other tribes in the extreme northeast of Siberia. Apparently some of
these tribesmen scarcely knew alcohol until the Russians introduced
it in the i6th and 17th centuries, but the fly-agaric had been their
precious possession long before then. The available records about its
religious role are adequate to reveal its main properties but fall short
of what we would have them be in the light of the proposal made in
this paper. Our earliest eye-witness account of its use is by a Pole,
Adam Kamienski, in 1658, among the Ostyak of the Irtysh River
(tributary of the Ob), an Ugrian people of the Finno-Ugrian family.*
Today we know its use is common to the Ostyak and their kin the
\'ogul, the Ket of the Yenisei Valley, the Samoyed peoples (who
together with the Finno-Ugrians make up the Uralic group), and three
sister tribes, unrelated linguistically to the others, on the north Pa-
cific Coast, the Chukchi, the Kor)’ak, and the Kamchadal. Responsible
obser\'ers have reported that the Yukagir, who survive in Siberia in
tiny communities near the Arctic Ocean, and the Inari Lapps in Fin-
land, preserve oral traditions of having consumed the fly-agaric in
times past, though they no longer do so.

I. Vide Exhibit [i], p. 233. Throughout this book the numbcn between heavy brackets refer to
the Exhibits.

THE FLY-AGARIC OF EURASIA

The Russians began their conquest of Siberia at the end of the i6th
centurv and our knowledge of these Siberian tribes virtually starts
then. The use of the fly-agaric has been in retreat ever since the arrival
of the White Man. It has ceded ground to the vodka of the Russians
and, until the Russian Revolution, the fire-water ot the western
whalers. A more powerful influence has been the aggressive cultural
thrust of the Russians, who frown on some of the practices peculiar
to the natives. (In a conflict of cultures the stronger one always assumes
right away, without examination, that all its ways, its vices as well as
its virtues, are incomparably superior.) To the Russian conquest of
Siberia, therefore, we owe our knowledge of the use of the fly-agaric
and also the approaching end of that use. In the Exhibits we publish
in tfxtenso the accounts of travellers, linguists, and anthropologists that
deal with the fly-agaric in Siberia. There is linguistic and folkloric
e\idence to indicate that formerly, in proto-history, it was used by
some ot the Indo-European peoples, as well as the Hungarians.

Ill

THE GROUND RULES OF THE SEARCH

M y primar\- source, the basis of my identification of Soma, is the
Rg\'eda. as made accessible to me in the recent annotated translations,
to wit, those of Renou, Geldner, and Bhawe.' It is certain that the
poets of the Rg\’eda knew the original Soma at first hand, and they
never strayed from it for long. I invoke later texts and the Avesta
only where they help us to know what the RgVeda means.

Any suggestion for the identity of Soma must meet the following
criteria; i) Is it in conflict with the RgVeda? 2) Does it fit comfortably
into such descriptive terms as the RgVeda poets apply to Soma, and
into the indications as to the source of supply, methods of handling,
etc.'i 3) Does the proposal happily resolve some of the many cruces in
the RgVeda? On all three counts I am hopeful that my suggestion
meets the requirements.

It was only after I had finished my examination of the RgVeda text,
and after Dr. O’Flaherty’ had laid before me her paper written at my
request on the history of Soma since Vedic times (here published as
Part Two), that I realized how unorthodox I had been in my approach.
It turns out that I was unique. Everyone else, literally everyone, had
relied on later sources, sources composed at a time when the original
Soma had been superseded by substitutes, and on plants called in
various modem vernaculars by names derived from ‘Soma’. Or they
had had recourse to guesses, without supporting evidence; guesses
such as rhubarb, or hashish, or wild grape wine, in disregard of their
incompatibility with the RgVeda. At a later stage I shall have more
to say on this. But here the question of substitutes calls for some
discussion.

The Aryans came from the north but no one knows from where.

1. 1 exclude from consideration the latest hymns to have been written, the last to be included in
the canon before it was closed. These hymns differ from the others considerably in tone and lan-
guage. and there is reason to believe that substitutes, which 1 think had always been occasionally
used, had now almost completely replaced Soma in the sacrifice. These hymns are mostly in
Mandala X from 85 through 191.

GROUND lU Li-s oi TUI-: si;.\iu;ii

Thoni.is lUirrow m.Kle he.idway on this question when in 7 he SiUiskrit
he niarshalleJ the latest liitguisiic evidence about the pre-
history of the Indo-Huropean peoples. The Indo-lranian branch ot
the race, before migrating to the areas that they were to conquer, had
occupied the marches of the Indo-Huropean domains and had lived
in long and intimate contact with a race that spoke proto-Finno-
Ugric, with whom they exchanged lexical elements.* The words that
they borrowed from their Finno-Ugric neighbors do not appear in
other Indo-European languages.

If as 1 believe the .Aryans brought down with them from their
homeland a cult of the sacred fly-agaric, it must needs follow that
their priests had from the start wrestled with the problem of substi-
tutes. The flv-agaric is not always available. Like most species ot
mushrooms, it does not lend itself to cultivation. The supply is there-
fore limited and varies with the season and the year. It can be dried
and thus preserved; the Rg\ eda .speaks on several occasions of water
being added to the (presumably dry) Soma, so that it would swell up
again. ^ The fly-agaric is a mycorrhizal mushroom: in Eurasia it grows
only in an underground relationship with the pines, the firs, and above
all the birches. Where these trees are not. neither does the fly-agaric
grow. It can be transported, but channels of trade must be set up
and maintaijied. A well organized priesthood would not allow the
cult to falter for want of the Sacred Element, and in the Indus \’allcv
settlements, far but not too far from birch and conifer, the u.se of
substitutes, while always regrettable, must have been so common as
to arouse no comment. This would make the final abandonment of
the fly-agaric easier than if no substitutes had ever been used. Wendv
O’Flaherty in her paper on the history of theSoma question has pointed
out the consistent association, in early times, of the color red with the
substitutes for Soma that were preferred - a significant pointer when
the fly-agaric, flaming red. as the original Soma is under consideration.
Friends in the Vaidika Saitisodhana Mandala in Poona, where such

1. Faber Faber. London. 1955, Chap. 1.

2. Ibid., pp. lyij

3. Vide, e.^., IX 74*.

PART ONE • CHAPTER III

questions as this are studied, have told me that three criteria governed
the choice of substitutes: the plant should be small, it should be
leafless, and it should possess fleshy stalks. If these are ancient criteria,
it is easy to see how they were suggested by the fly-agaric - small,
leafless, with juic)' stalk. That the criteria seem arbitrary and per-
mitted the choice of plant substitutes bearing no outward resemblance
to the fly-agaric is not incompatible with the sacerdotal habit of mind.
The substitute had to be constantly available, and what plant that met
this condition could resemble the fly-agaric? In the hot arid regions
of northwest India, Afghanistan, and Iran the available species of
three botanical genera. Ephedra, Sarcostemma, and Periploca, seemed
to meet these requirements with fair success and they came to be
widely used in the post-Vedic Soma sacrifice.

There has been an impression in India and elsewhere that Soma
was a creeper, v<j//r in Sanskrit. No RgVedic authority exists for this
term, in fact none in the whole corpus of Vedic literature. But the
three genera that I have cited could be construed as v^ii/i and therefore
I refrain from contending that was not used in RgVedic times. In-
deed in the second half of the Mandala X, in the last batch of hymns
to be added before the canon was closed, there is a verse that may
refer to such substitutes:

X 853

One thinks one drinks Soma because a plant is crushed. The Soma
that the Brahmans know - that no one drinks.
somam manyate papivdn ydt sampimdnty d^adhim
sdmam ydm brahmdno vidur nd tdsydindti kds cand

(For the convenience of scholars we shall always add the Vedic text
of the verses that we quote.) This verse, and the late hymn of which
it forms a part, may have been composed at the very moment when
the original Soma had already fallen into disuse, when only priests
still remembered what it was, and when substitutes were currently
accepted as the genuine article.

SOMA WAS NOT ALCOHOLIC

In the West it has been repeatedly suggested that Soma was an
alcoholic drink. (The culture of the modern world has long been
obsessed with alcohol as the sole inebriant.) This can be denied with
assurance. The difference in tone between the bibulous verse of the
West and the holy rapture of the Soma hymns will suffice for those of
any literary discrimination or psychological insight. But there are
criteria other than the literary and the subjective. The stalks were
pressed as a liturgical act and before the liturg)- was finished the
juice was drunk. Three sacramental offerings could be made in one
day. Even if we allow for the heat of the summer in the Indus Valley,
fermentation could not have advanced far in a religious rite repeated
thrice in a day. Moreover, those who know the fermenting process
must find it hard, indeed impossible, to imagine anyone, no matter
how far removed from our culture, waxing lyrical, even ecstatic, over
a drink in active fermentation. It is not as though the Indo*Aryans
were unfamiliar with fermented drinks. They had their surd, men-
tioned several times in the RgVeda but without reverential paeans;
quite the contrar)':

VII 86‘»*»

Malice has not been of my own free will, O Varuna;
it was siira, anger, dice, a muddled head.
ltd sd svo ddkso varuna dhriitih sd surd manyur
vibhtdako dcittih

A mere difference between fermented drinks would not cause the
gulf that separates surd from the Soma that inspired the great hymns.

Yet it has been suggested, as will be seen in PartTwo, that recollections
of the mead of their ancestors might have clothed this particular
beverage for the Aryans with rich associations entitling it to a superior
footing than other fermented drinks. But no one knows whether the
ancestors of the Aryans had been drinking mead: many peoples
knowing honey do not ferment it. In any case bees with their honey

PART ONE • CHAPTER IV

exist in the Indus Valley, and there would have been no reason to
give up mead, if indeed it had been Soma, and even less to exchange
it for the vile tasting substitutes that took its place. Honey, mddhu, is
mentioned frequently in the RgVeda but mead never. Honey is cited
for its sweetness and also is often applied as a metaphor of enhance-
ment to Soma. There is reason to think it was used on occasions to mix
with Soma, but the two were never confused. Honey offers no stalks
to pound in the course of the liturgy, nor does it ferment in a
twinkling.

The most astonishing of candidates for Soma was espoused by Sir
Aurel Stein, the explorer-scholar, vi^., rhubarb. He had observed it
growing wild in the mountains. According to Stein himself, no Indian
in recorded history has made a fermented drink of rhubarb, though
of course with the addition of sugar or honey the juice lends itself to
fermentation. There is no reason to think any Indian ever did so.
True, there are stalks to press, but the juice would not ferment and
become alcoholic at once. All the rich Soma adjectives and metaphors
of the RgVeda make odd reading when linked to rhubarb: resplen-
dent, Born of Thunder, Mainstay of the Earth, Navel of the Way,
Immortal Principle. Stein must have forgotten either his RgVeda or
his sense of humour.

In 1921 an Indian advanced the notion that Soma, after all, was
nothing but bhang, the Indian name for marijuana. Cannabis sativa,
hemp, hashish. He conveniently ignored the fact that the RgVeda
placed Soma only on the high mountains, whereas hemp grows
everywhere: and that the virtue of Soma lay in the stalks, whereas
it is the resin of the unripened pistillate buds of hashish that transport
one into the beyond; or, much weaker, the leaves, which are never
mentioned in the RgVeda. The stalks of hemp are woody.

The Indo-Iranians did not know the distillation process and there-
fore Soma could not have been a strong drink, i.e., brandy or the
distillate of grains. It should be unnecessary to argue this point, but
scholars - Indian and Western alike -use the terms loosely, terms
properly applicable only to distilled liquor. In ix 107’* the poet com-
pares Soma with the 'intoxicating one’; Geldner supplies Branntwein

SOMA WAS NOT ALCOHOLIC

(brandy) as an example of what he might have meant, and Renou
follows his lead with alcool (any distilled beverage). I doubt whether
they would have made these suggestions had they been alert to the
anachronism. V. S. Agrawala in his Itidui as Known to Panim seems to
mean decanting when he mistakenly says distilling.' Dr. O Flaherty
in her account of the Soma search finds it necessary to record many

such confusions and ambiguities.

The Orientalist Berthold Laufer wrote, ‘Certain it is that distillation
was a western invention, and was unknown to the ancient Chinese.
The Dutch scholar R. J. Forbes in his S/iort History of the Art of Distil-
lation^ concludes that there is no evidence for distilled beverages before
the distillation process was discovered and practiced around A. D.
1 100 in Italy, probably at Salerno. (‘Alcohol’ is of Arabic origin but in
Arabic it meant something other than what we mean by it.) The
making of aqiiavitce (as it was called for a long time, and still is, in
parts of Europe) remained a secret of the alchemists and some mo-
nastic establishments for centuries, until the Reformation, when in
the course of a decade, in the second quarter of the i 6 th century,
thanks to the dissolution of the monasteries by the Protestants, the
'secret’ became common property, and the product, after having
changed hands for a king’s ransom, sold suddenly dirt cheap. There
was no contemporary comment on the social implications of this
unanticipated fruit of religious reform.

1. 2nd edition, Varanasi, 1963. p. lai.

2. Chinese Cwitriburijmi to the History of Civilisation in Ancient Iran. Field Museum, Chicago. 1919, p. 238.

3. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1948, pp. 32, 88-89.

THE ROOTS. LEAVES. BLOSSOMS. SEED OF SOMA:

WHERE ARE THEY?

In the Rg\’eda (excluding the latter half of Mandala X, last to be
admitted to the canon) there is no reference to the root of the Soma
plant, nor to its leaves, nor to its blossoms, nor to its seed. In a lengthy
anthoIog>' of lyric poetrj’ written over centuries in the far flung Valley
of the Indus and its tributaries, how odd it is that no poet ever speaks
of these conspicuous parts of almost all chlorophyll-bearing plants,
not even casually or incidentally. There must have been a conspiracy
of silence, laid dow'n perhaps by the dictates of their very religion,
but why?

Alternatively, they were speaking of a plant that had neither seed
nor blossom nor leaf nor root; vi^., a mushroom. As for seed, there is
positive evidence that Soma was thought to lack seed: Soma was
procreated from on high, the Somic germ having been placed by the
gods. Soma was divinely engendered:

IX 833“*

The [gods, those] fathers with a commanding glance, laid the [Somic]

germ.

nrcdksasah pitdro gdrbham d dadhiih

In a world where farming was already well developed one would
expect Soma to be cultivated. A plant with properties so extraordinary
would elicit the utmost attention, though owing to its sacred character
we would rather expect its growth to be confined to the gardens of
the higher priesthood. But the fact is that there is never a mention of
its cultivation. Perhaps it did not lend itself to man’s efforts to make
it grow. To this day the fly-agaric (like almost all other species of
mushrooms) refuses to be cultivated. Even in the laboratory it will
not sprout.

ROOTS. LEAVES. BLOSSOMS. SEED

Note. While our argument in favour of the fly-agaric is founded
squarely on the RgV'^eda, there is one verse in the Avesca that seems to
speak of the 'trunks’ and ‘branches’ of the sacred plant, and discussion
of that verse is in order if only to forestall objections.

The Avesta is the Bible of the religion of Zoroaster (= ‘Zarathustra’).
a religion that lingers on to this day in the Parsi community centered
in Bombay. Tradition has it that most of the Avesta was lost when
Alexander the Great overran Iran, but the surviving fragments are
still substantial. There is no consensus among scholars on the dates of
Zoroaster. Some assign him to about the loth century B.C., this
early date being based on reasonable arguments derived from lin-
guistics and comparative cultural studies. Others prefer to accept the
tradition according to which he was living around B. C. 600, the pro-
posed dates being 630-553. or 628-551. or 618-541. The ipsissimrt verba of
the great Prophet are enshrined in the Avesta, but most of the text is
of later date and some of its traditions stem back long before his time.
Religiously and linguistically the Avesta and RgVeda are siblings. The
text of the RgVeda is, however, much purer owing to its marvelous
preservation through the ages by the disciplined human memory.
The Avesta like the I^gVcda knew an inebriating plant that was the
object of worship, and the Avestan ‘Haoma’ and the Vedic Soma
were certainly identical, at least at the start. Three chapters, Yasna 9,
10, and II, consist of numinous phrases of adoration addressed to
Haoma; collectively they are known as the Horn Vast. James Dar-
mesteter, who gave us our standard translation of the Avesta, felt sure
that the Horn Vast had been interpolated late into the text, between
B. C. 140 and A. D. 50. One might expect its authority to be impugned
by reason of this late date, but an interpolated text may incorporate
ancient words and traditions, and precisely this is the situation here,
the Horn Yast preserving for us in its words and matter some of the
truly archaic elements in the Avesta, perhaps antedating Zoroaster
himself. Thus it becomes necessary to examine Yasna 10.5. which I
give below in the original Iranian dialect peculiar to the Avesta, in
Darmesteter’s French translation, and in my English rendering of
Darmesteter. The speaker is addressing Haoma:

PART ONE • CHAPTER V

Grandis par ma parole
dans tous tes crones, dans routes tes
branches, dans toures tes tiges
dans tous tes troncs, dans routes tes
branches, dans routes tes tiges.

Darmesteter's rendering.

Grow by my word
in all thy trunks, in all thy branches,
in all thy stems

in all thy trunks, in all thy branches,
in all thy stems.

Englis/i translation of Darmesteter.

I have underlined in the Avescan text the three words that Darmeste-
ter renders by ‘trunks’, ‘branches’, and 'stems’. The question is how
certain are these meanings. (We reproduce on p. 122 the picture of
Haoma chat Darmesteter gives us. in what he says is its natural size.
It is a leafless plant without ‘trunk’ or ‘branches’.) I shall take up these
three words in the inverse order of their appearance in the verse.

i.fravdxsi-. This word had three meanings or uses: (a) stem, (b)
the membrum virile, and (c) antler. The prefix /r<i- conveys the idea of
forward movement, of growth, thrust, erection. This is lacking in our
lifeless ‘stem’, but how felicitous for our fast-growing mushroom tribe !
In many of the world’s cultures there is a semantic overlap between
‘mushroom’ and the membrum viri 7 e. for obvious reasons; e.g., Greek
puxYjC, Japanese matsutake. In mycology we use'stipe’rather than ‘stem’,
but perhaps ‘sprout’ would convey better the thrust of the original.

i. fraspar^a-. According to the lexicons this word meant ‘shoot’,
‘sprout’, ‘sucker’, and again the prefix fra- conveys the feel of for-
ward thrust. There seems no warrant for Darmesteter’s ‘branches ,
except for the later Pahlavi and Sanskrit translations of the word,
which may have been influenced by the current Haoma-substitutes.
Darmesteter was presupposing that Haoma was a tree or shrub and
translating the word to conform to his presupposition. The meaning
and feel of the word closely resembles /ravdxsi -.

i.varssaji-. This word presents the Avestan student with diffi-

var?ca\avnha mana vaca
vispSsca paiti varpsajis
visphea paiti frasparoy?

\'isp?scd paiti fravdxso

(In the original text the last three
lines are repeated.)

ROOTS, LEAVES. BLOSSOMS, SEED

culties. It occurs only three times, in Yasna 10.5. Yasna 7 i- 9 . \ah
8.42. The contexts are similar and do not help. The word is compound,
noun + verb, viirasa. ‘tree’, and guv. ‘to live’. The gramntatical
relationship between these two elements is not clear. The suggestion
has been made that the word’s meaning was 'that which gives lite to
the tree’, whence ‘root’ seems a viable guess. Bartholoma^ suggested
this meaning in his famous Old-lranian Dictionary, but he was not
sure as he added a ciuestion-mark to the explanation. Darmesteter
was following Middle-Iranian traditions when he translated the word
as ’trunk’, and this meaning was confirmed by H. W. Bailey who at
the same time rejected the rendering ‘root’. (Journal of (he Royal
.■l.'ciutic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1934. pp. 507-8.) Bailey’s con-
clusion was based on the Pahlavi translation of the word varosaji- by
Imih = ‘stalk’ or ‘trunk’, and udvun = ‘stalk’, the latter originally
meaning ‘the upper part of a tree’, which rules out ‘root’.

The Pahlavi tradition is not a completely reliable guide to the
meaning of uncertain terms in the Avesta, but so long as no serious
contradiction arises, it may help to make the rendering more probable.
If Haoma was a mushroom, the translation must accommodate itself
to that fact, and we are relying on the RgVeda to establish this. Now
if Bailey’s ‘stalk’ be accepted as a possible meaning of varoSaji -. this is
again close to the other two words that we examined before. Here
then we have perfect harmony of style. Yasna 10.5 was written in an
elevated rhythmic prose by a bard who was addicted to poetic paral-
lelism. We have seen chat most of the verse was repeated word for
word. We have seen chat in the verse that concerns us the second and
third substantives virtually duplicate each other. Does it not therefore
become a poetic necessity that the first of the triad should be a close
synonym? On this assumption and on the assumption that Haoma
was a mushroom, I suggest the following translation:

Swell, (then,) by my word I

in all thy stalks, and in all thy shoots, and in all thy sprouts.

For help in dissecting Yasna 10.5 I am indebted and grateful to
Dr. Heinnch von Stietencron, of Heidelberg.

SOMA GREW IN THE MOUNTAINS

Time and again the RgVeda speaks of Soma as hailing from the
mountains, from the tops of the mountains, which in the case of the
Indo-Aryans meant either the Hindu Kush or the Himalayas:

V43^"

. . . plant from the mountain, . . .
mddhvo rdsam sugdhhastir giristhdm

... he has placed the Soma on the mountain top.
divt suryatn adadhdt somam ddrau
IX i8>*

. . . the Soma seated on the mountain top . . .
pdri siivdno giristhdh pa\itre some aksdh
IX 46 ’^'

. . . these Somas grown on the mountain top.

ksdrantah parvatdvfdhah

1X62**

... the Soma stalk . . . seated on the mountain top;
dsdvy amsiir mdddydpsii ddkso giristhdh
IX 62 's*

. . . Bom on the mountain top, ... the Soma juice is placed for Indra
girdjdtd ihd stutd (ndur tndrdya dhiyate
IX 71 **

. . . [This Soma] . . . that grows in the mountain . . .
pdri dyuksdm sdhasah parvatdvfdham
IX 823*’

at the navel of the Earth, in the mountains, [Soma] has placed

his residence . . .

ndbhd prthivyd girisu ksdyam dadite
IX85‘^**»

... In the firmament of- heaven the Seers milk . . . the bull-Soma
seated on the mountain top;

divd tidke tnddhujihvd asakdto vend duhanty tiksdnam giristhdm

SOMA GREW IN THE MOUNTAINS

Here is the flow of Soma that is come from within the most
distant mountain . . .
esd yayau paramdd antdr ddreh

IX 95^**

. . . This [Soma], . . . [this] stalk, [this] bull seated on the mountain
top . . .

flmiiim duhanty uksdnam giristhdm
IX 98 ®*

. . . This Soma juice, god [himself], sitting on the mountain . . .
dev6 devl giristhd

The poets say that Soma grows high in the mountains. They make
a point of this. They never speak of it as growing elsewhere. They
must mean what they say. What a useless business it is for us to go
chasing in the valleys after rhubarb, honey, hashish, wild Afghan
grapes: in hot arid wastes after species of Ephedra, Sarcostemma,
Periploca! For the Vedic poet this lofty birthplace was additional
testimony to its divine origin, bringing it closer to the celestial sphere,
to Indra, to Parjanya. It is unlikely that the poets of the RgVeda
should have conspired together to attribute a fictitious habitat to
Soma.

In Northern Eurasia the birch and conifer grow at sea level. South
of the Oxus and in India they are found only at a great height in the
mountains, around 8,000 to 16,000 feet. As I have mentioned already,
the fly-agaric grows in mycorrhizal relationship with the birch and
the conifer. (Centuries later, when the art of writing began to play a
r61e in Indian culture, the bark of the Himalayan birch quickly gained
renown in Northern India for writing purposes.)

The indo-Aryans. having conquered only the valleys, did not con-
trol the source of their Soma supply. The mountains were stUl held
by their enemies, probably the Dasyus. the hated and despised dark
skinned Dasyus. Under the circumstances there could be no ceremony
attending the gathering of the sacred Soma, such as had perhaps
attended it in the homeland, and such as we know attended the
gathenng of the hallucinogenic mushrooms of Mexico. All that had

PART ONE • CHAPTER \ I

been left behind, and now. in \’edic times, a ceremony attended the
buying of the holy plant from the natives who came down from the
heights where the birch and the conifer grow. In the ^atapatha
BralwhUhi (as well as elsewhere) there is an account, absurd bv our
standards, of the ceremonial purchase, complete to speckled cane to
beat the seller with, wherein a cow of a particular hue of skin and eye
is e.vchanged for the Sacred Element.’ This barter price for Soma
reminds us. curiously, of the high price paid for the fly-agaric by the
native tribesmen of the Maritime Provinces of Siberia: they are said
to give as much as a reindeer for one fly-agaric, or even two or three
reindeer.*

r. Eggcling translation, Parc ii. pp. 66ff.
X. Vide in/rj, [iij, p. 151.

VII

THE TWO FORMS OF SOMA

I now come to a crucial argument in my case.

The fly-agaric is unique among the psychotropic plants in one of

its properties; it is an inebriant in Two Forms.

First Form;

Taken directly, and by ‘directly’ I mean by eating the raw mush-
room, or by drinking its juice squeezed out and taken neat, or
mixed with water, or with water and milk or curds, and perhaps
barley in some form, and honey; also mixed with herbs such as
Epilobium sp.

Second Form:

Taken in the urine of the person who has ingested the fly-agaric in
the First Form.

The Second Form, as urine, was first called to the attention of the
Western World by a Swedish army officer, Filip Johann von Strahlen-
berg. after having served 13 years as a captive of the Russians in Siberia.
His book, first published in German in Stockholm, appeared in 1730;'
and an English translation in London in 1736 and again in 1738 under
a lengthy title beginning An Historico-Geographical Description of the
North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia. Since then many other
travellers and anthropologists have set forth the facts, usually going
to extremes in characterizing the practice as revolting, disgusting,
filthy, and the like. So far as our records go, none of them has tried
the urine, not even the anthropologists, among whom there are usual-
ly some who pride themselves on participating to the full in native
ways and who consider it their professional duty to do so. In 1798,
a Pole, Joseph Kopec, a literary figure of some standing, tried the
mushrooms (but not the urine) and published his remarkable im-

I. Philip Johan von Scrahlenberg, Das und Osiliche Theil von Europa und Asia, in so \veit wfchtr
das gantze Russische Rtich mil Sibehon und dcr grossen Tanary in sich btgreiffti. . . . Stockholm 1730
Vide [3I. p. 234-

PART ONE • CHAPTER VII

pressions of the experience.’ That he was ill at the time and running
a fever detracts from the value of his testimony.

In the RgVeda Soma also has Two Forms, expressly so described
in IX 66*- 3.5;

IX 66'-^

Cleanse thyself, O [thou] to whom all peoples belong, for all won-
drous deeds, the praiseworthy god, the friend for the friends.

With those two Forms [dual, not plural] which stand facing us, O
Soma, thou reignest over all things. O Pavamana!
p<ii’tJ5va visvacarsane 'bbi I’lsvani kdvyd
sdkhd sdkhibhya tdyah

tdbhydm visvasya rdjasi ye pavamana dhdmani
praclici soma tasthdtuh

IX 663

The Forms [plural, not dual] that are thine, thou pervadest them,

O Soma, through and through, O Pavamana, at the appointed hours,

O Wonder-worker!

pdri dhdmdni ydni te tvd'm somdsi vjh’dtd/i
pdvamdna rtubhih kave

IX 66*

Thy shining rays spread a filtre on the back of heaven, O Soma,
with [thy] Forms [plural, not duaiy

tdva iukrdso arcdyo diva's prsthi vi tanvate
pavitram soma dhdmabhili

In the Soma sacrifice the First Form is drunk by Indra and his char-
ioteer, Vayu, who are impersonated by high functionaries in the rite.
The Vedic commentators, knowing nothing of the fly-agaric, have
reached a consensus that the First Form is the simple juice of the Soma
plant, and the Second Form is the juice after it has been mixed with
water and with milk or curds. The commentators are agreed on this,
the Vedic mythologies are so written, the matter is considered settled.’

1. Vide [9j. pp. 243 ff.

2 . Sanskrit and Vedic possess three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. In 1X66^ the dual num*
bcr IS used speaking of the Tnv Forms, This is natural as the poet faces two vessels containing,
one the juice of Soma presumably mixed with milk, etc., the other Soma urine. In verses 3 and
5 he speaks of all Soma's forms, the celestial, the plant, the juice, the Soma urine, and therefore
uses the plural.

3 . Vide, e.g., A. A. Macdonell. The Vedic Mythology, London, i897» pp* 106 .

THE TWO FORMS OF SOMA

While in default of any other explanation it is easy to see how this
was arrived at. it is unsatisfactory because it flies in the face of the
IRgVeda text. Indra and Vayu are repeatedly drinking the juice ol
Soma mixed with milk or curds, and. saving error on my part, they
are never in the RgX'eda drinking juice expressly described as not
mixed with anything.

I will cite four instances where Indra and \'ayu drink Soma mixed
with milk or curds. The first instance. V si-*'’, is crucial because there
is no mention of curds and the reader might think the poet was
speaking of the unmixed juice, exactly as the commentators contend,
until suddenly in verse 7, just before the end. it seems that all along
the poet took for granted the curds! In the many instances where
the poet does not mention the milk or curds, the omission seems
accidental. The fly-agaric was often, perhaps usually, dried up when
it was used in the sacrifice, and initially it had to be soaked in water,
reinflated so to speak. Here are verses V 51^-’:

V ji4-7»b Here is the Soma [that] pressed in the vat is poured all

around inside the cup. he dear to Indra. to Vayu.

. . . O Vayu, arrive hither for the invitation, accepting it, to
share in the oblation! Drink [of the juice] of the pressed
stalk, up to [thy full] satisfaction I

. . . Indra and thou, Vayu. ye have a right to drink of these
pressed [stalks]. Accept them, immaculate ones, for [your
full] satisfaction!

. . . Pressed for Indra, for Vayu, have been the Soma plants
requiring a mixture of curds.

aydtn soma’s camfi swtd 'matre pdri sicyate
priyd indrdya vdydve

vdyav d ydhi vitdye jiisdno haxydddtaye
plbd sutdsydndhaso abhi prdyah

(ndrai ca x^dyav esam sutdndm pitim arhathah
tdiijusetkdm arepdsdv abhi prdyah

sutd indrdya vdydve somdso dddhydsirah

PART ONE • CHAPTER VH

The following three quotations say expressly that Indra and Vayu
drink Soma mixed with milk or curds:

IX M * The Athan, ans have mixed milk with thy sweetness, longing

for the god, the god [Soma] for the god [Indra].

IX Cleanse the Soma, pressed out by the hand-worked stones;
dilute the sweet one in the sweetness [milk or water].

Approach with reverence : mix him with curds, put the Soma
juice into Indra.

abhi te tnddhund pdy 6 'tharvdno asisrayuh
devdm dti'dya devayu

hdstacyutebhir ddribhih siitdm somam punitana
mddhdv d dhdvatd mddhu

ndmased upa sidata dadhned abhi srinhana
indum indre dadhdtana

IX 62*'* The beautiful plant beloved of the gods, [the Soma] washed
in the waters, pressed by the masters, the cows season [it]
with milk.

Then like drivers [urging] on a horse, they have beautified
[the Soma], the juice of liquor for drinking in common, for
the Immortal One [Indra].

subhrdm dndho devdvdtam apsu dhuto nfbhih sutdh
svddanti gdvah pdyobhih

dd tm dsvam nd hetdro 'susubhann amftdya
mddhvo rdsam sadhamdde

IX 109'* All the gods drink this Soma when it has been mixed with
milk of cows and pressed by the Officiants.

IX 109”''* The prize-winning Soma has flowed, in a thousand drops
cleansed by the waters, mixed with the milk of cows.

O Soma, march ahead tow’ard Indra ’s bellies, having been
held in hand by the Officiants, pressed by the stones!

THE TWO FORMS OF SOMA

pif>antv <i5y‘i viive rfex’tiio gohltih hiuisya

nrhliilt sutdsva
• • ^

sd vdjy dksdii sithdsraretd iuiblur mrjdiw
gdbhih hindudli

prd soma ydlitiuirasya kuLui nfhidr yemdno
diiribliih sutdii

If then the traditional view of the first and second ‘Form’ of Soma
is to be replaced, what evidence do I adduce in favor of my interpre-
tation?

Only the words of the RgVeda. In the hymns to Soma there comes
a time when the religious emotion reaches a climax, an intensity ot
exaltation, that is overwhelming, and that after 3.000 years, in a
world of utterly different orientation, even in translation, cannot but
move any perceptive reader. These hymns are in Maodala IX, from
say 62 through perhaps 97, the mood then tending to ease off. The
74th hymn, in particular, consists of an enumeration of phrases that
we have learned by now to recognize when they occur singly, clearly
numinous phrases for the contemporary believers, cense phrases piled
one on the other. Pelion on Ossa, in portentous sequence, until we
suddenly read, at the end of verse 4. a phrase not met with before
and not to be met again:

1X74^

Soma, storm cloud imbued with life, is milked of ghee, milk.
Navel of the Way, Immortal Principle, he sprang into life in the
far distance. Acting in concert, those charged with the Office,
richly gifted, do full honor to Soma. The swollen men piss the flowing
[Soma]i

dtmanvdn ndbho duhyate ghrtdm pdya rtdsya ndbhir amftam vijdyate
samicindh suddttavah prmanti tdm ndro hitdm dva mehanti p^ravaft

If the final clause of this verse bears the meaning that I suggest for it,
then it alone suffices to prove my case.

Renou renders the final phrase of this verse 4 as follows:

Les [Maruts] seigneurs i la vessie pleine compissent [le Soma] mis-
en-branle.

PART ONE . CHAPTER VII

The [Marucs] lords with full bladders piss [Soma] quick with move-
ment.

Renou had lived with the RgVeda text for a lifetime and knew
ever)-thing that had ever been said by scholars about it. He discerned
that the ‘swollen’ men had full bladders and that they were urinat-
ing Soma. But to give meaning to the sentence he introduced the gods
of rain, the Maruts. Certainly there are precedents for the clouds’
‘urinating’ rain. But in this verse and at this point in the hymns the
Maruts are out of place. From IX 68 to 109 there are 24 other citations
of nf in the plural (men) and in every^ instance they are the officiants
at the sacrifice.* So are they in 74^. It is noteworthy that Grassmann
translates nf in this verse by ‘men serving . . .’ etc., in conformity with
his third definition of nf, ‘men serving the gods, such as singers and
sacrificers’. He does not translate it by his 6th definition, which would
include gods. The priests appointed to impersonate Indra and Vayu,
having imbibed the Soma mixed with milk or curds, are now uri-
nating Soma. They in their persons convert Soma into the Second Form.
When Renou translated this verse, he had never heard of the Si-
berian use of the fly-agaric. Roger Heim and I apprised him of the
facts when we dined with the Renous in the middle of April 1966.

Let us pause for a moment and dwell on a rather odd figure of
speech. The blessings of the fertilizing rain are likened to a shower of
urine. The storm-clouds fecundate the earth with their urine. Vedic
scholars have lived so long with their recalcitrant text, and so close
to it, that they remark no longer on an analogy that calls for expla-
nation. Urine is normally something to cast away and turn from,
second in this respect only to excrement. In the Vedic poets the values
are reversed and urine is an ennobling metaphor to describe the rain.
The values are reversed, I suggest, because the poets in Vedic India
were thinking of urine as the carrier of the Divine Inebriant, the
bearer of amrta. This would explain the role that urine - human and
bovine - has played through the centuries as the medico-religious
disinfectant of the Indo-Iranian world, the Holy Water of the East.

I. Vide IX 684-7; 722.4.5; 753.S; 78*; 8o4(*); 86*®'»*-34; 87': 91*; 95’: 97*: 99®; lOl*: 107*®: 108**: I09*''*'*®-

THE TWO FORMS OF SOMA

The words of this hymn IX 74 nre redolent with a most holy mystery,
the handling of the miraculous Soma planted on the mountain tops
bv the gods. Those charged with the Office are the Guardians-of-the-
Meaning, the Guardians-of-the-Melodies. the Guardians-of-the-Mys-
tery. The Pressing Stones, the woolen Filtre. the mingling of the Soma
juice first with water, then with milk or curds in the vessels -all
this is set forth clearly. Then the details of the Mystery are hidden
from us. This is not in my opinion deliberate. Every party to the pro-
ceedings knew every detail. But when an event takes place that stirs
people to their depths, a hush naturally falls, a feeling of awe and
terror and adoration mingle. They speak in a whisper, as the rubric
directs the clerg)’ to do at the climax of the Mass. The details of the
Mystery are certainly not to be put into Hymns. Thus we do not
know what the dose of the juice was. nor how much water was added,
nor how much milk or curds, nor what the effect was. We do not
know whether the effect of the First Form and the Second Form was
identical. Chemists say it could well be different, the juice being one
thing and the metabolite another. Or it might be the same, the juice
developing its marvelous properties only after it has been converted
into the metabolite. There is a further possibility. In modern exper-
ience the fly-agaric causes nausea. If the agent that provokes vomiting
is not the same as the one that leads to ecstasy, the former might be
eliminated in the digestive track and the urine be thus freed from
this inconvenience. We do not know how the metabolite was taken,
whether neat or with water or milk or curds or honey. In the RgVeda
we are not told who shared in the divine beverage. Afterwards only
the priests, or some of them, were privileged to imbibe, but must
there not have been a primitive age when others who participated in
the rites shared in the drink? We know that centuries later the Sudras,
the outcastes, were not permitted even to hear the words of the
RgVeda hymns, so holy were these.

Bhawe caUs attention to three passages in the RgVeda that seem to
him to stress the skill needed in the mixing of the Soma juice.* This

.. S. S. Bhawe: TTu: Sema-Hymns of tho UVoda. Part m. p. ,76. comment on 7o8<l; also 47.. and 997.,

PART ONE • CHAPTER VH

might refer only to complicated ritualistic gestures and postures that
had to be executed with precision. But in his judgement it is more
likely that the blending of the ingredients had to be Just right. Perhaps
there was a secret recipe, the fruit of esoteric experience passed on
from one generation of priests to the next. This recipe might be able
to reduce or eliminate the initial nausea provoked by the Soma juice.

Let us pause for a moment and consider the probabilities. Some
3,250 years ago the Indo-Aryans living in the Indus Valley were
worshipping a plant whose juice, pressed out and drunk immediately,
seems to have had astonishing psychic effects, effects comparable to
those of our Mexican hallucinogenic mushrooms, comparable but far
different. The identity of chat plane is not known. Hundreds of poets
living over centuries in different centers speak of it in hallowed
syllables but without mentioning leaves, roots, blossoms, or seed.
Its stalk (‘stipe’ in mycologists’ language) was obviously fleshy. How
well these fit a wild mushroom! Nowhere in the thousand hymns is
a dimension given of the ‘stalk’ that is incompatible with the stipe of
a mushroom. It grew only high in the mountains. How well this fits
the fly-agaric in the latitude of the Indus Valley! The poet says that
the priests who have drunk the juice of this mysterious plant urinate
the divine drink. In the traditions of Eurasia there is only one plant
that supplies a psychotropic metabolite - the fly-agaric. Could any
key unlock this combination save the fly-agaric?

If mine is indeed the interpretation to place on the Second Form of
Soma in the RgVeda text, this should not be the only reference to the
potable metabolite in Indo-Iranian literature and Parsi traditional
practice. In the Avesta there is a verse in a famous Yasna, 48: 10, sup-
posed to preserve the very words of the Teacher himself, which has
never been satisfactorily explained;

When wilt thou do away with this urine of drunkenness with which
the priests evilly delude [the people] as do the wicked rulers of the
provinces in [full] consciousness [of what they do]?

[Translation by R. C. Zaehner. - The text below corresponds to the
underlined part of the translation only.j
Kadd apn »iu8ram ahyd madahyd . .

THE TWO FORMS OF SOMA

The learned commentators, not knowing of the Second Form of the
Soma of the Iranians (called Haoma), have arbitrarily changed ‘urine’
to ‘excrement’ and have puzzled over the meaning. Surely Zoroaster
meant what he said: he was excoriating the consumption of urine in
the Soma sacrifice. If my interpretation be accepted, there is opened
up a promising line of inquir)' in Zoroastrian scholarship.

In the vast reaches of the Alu/iuh/iaruni. the classical Indian epic,
there occurs one episode - an isolated episode of unknown lineage -
that bears with startling clarity on our Second Form. It was introduced
into the text perhaps a thousand years after the fly-agaric had ceased
to be used in the Soma sacrifice, and perhaps the editor did not know
its meaning, which only today we are recovering. Here it is, as trans-
lated by Wendy O’Flaherty.

Mahdbhdrata, Asvamedha Parvan, 14.54.12-35

Krsiw had offered Uitoiifeti a boon, and L/UanJl'a said. ‘I wish to have
water whenever I want it.’ Krsna said, ‘When you want anything,
think on me,' and he went away. Then one day l/tfanfed was thirsty,
and he thought on Krpia, and thereupon he saw a naked, filthy md-
tafiga [ = canddla, an outcaste hunter], surrounded by a pack of
dogs, terrifying, bearing a bow and arrows. And Uttdiifca saw
copious streams of water flowing from his lower parts. The matfliigti
smiled and said to Utttjnfea. ‘Come, and accept this water

from me. I feel great pity for you, seeing you so overcome by thirst.’

The sage did not rejoice in that water, and he reviled Frsnu with
harsh words. The mdtanga kept repeating, 'Drink !', but the sage was
angry and did not drink. Then the hunter vanished with his dogs,
and Uttanka’s mind was troubled; he considered that he had been
deceived by ICrsMa. Then Frsna came, bearing his disc and conch, and
Uttahka said to him, ‘It was not proper for you to give me such a
thing, water in the form of the stream from a mdtaiiga.’ Then KTsiia
spoke to Uttanka with honeyed words, to console him, saying, '1 gave
it to you in such form as was proper, but you did not recognize it.

For your sake I said to Indra, “Give the amrta to Uttaiifca in the
form of water." Indra said to me, “A mortal should not become
immortal; give some other boon to him." He kept repeating this, but
I insisted, "Give the amrta." Then he said to me, “If I must give it,

I will become a mdtanga and give the amrta to the noble descendant

PART ONE • CHAPTER VII

of B/irgu [i.e., If he accepts the amrta thus, I will go and give

it to him todav.” As he continued to say. “I will not give it [other-
wise]," I agreed to this, and he approached you and offered the
amrta. But he took the form of a canddla. But your worth is great,
and 1 will give you what you wished: on whatever days you have
a desire for water, the clouds will be full of water then, and they
will give water to you, and thev will be called L’ft<i»lfe<i-clouds.’ Then
the sage was pleased.

We found the first reference to Soma-urine in the RgVeda at a point
in the liturg)' where the proceedings and the religious emotion called
for frankness in utterance. This reference did not stand alone in the
literatures of Iran and India. There should be yet others in the RgVeda
itself, perhaps more veiled as befits a holy mystery. I believe there are
many such, but for the orderly progress of my argument I will defer
their discussion until I reach the third of the three ‘filtres’.

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EPITHETS. CONCEITS. AND TROPES FOR SOMA

Until this verv day no poet in the English language has ever sung
the supernal beauties ot the tly-agaric; nor I believe has any novelist
or essayist paid obeisance to this remarkable Iruit. The same can
be said probably for all the Germanic and Celtic languages. The ori-
ginal ‘toadstool’ was the fly-agaric, if we judge by the French and
Basque languages. In the conservative provinces ot France the dialectal
name of the fly-agaric is cmpuiiihn. ‘the toad,’ and in the Biscay and
Guipuzcoa country the Basques call it by the precise Basque equivalent
of the French provincial name, - umorofo. In .\l».s/irivms Ru.nsui und
History (Pantheon Books. New York. 195-) my wife V. P. Wasson and
I explored the folkloric and linguistic background ot the fly-agaric
throughout Europe, and showed the deep hold that it exerted at one
time on the imagination of the north European peoples. It seemed
that a shadow hung over the fly-agaric, an ancestral curse; yes, a tabu.
In many West European languages there are childhood ditties dealing
with it. but beyond the nursery no one dwells on it e.xcept to repudiate
it whenever occasion demands. At present I leave to the reader to
find his own explanation for this tabu.

In the fall of the year, hard by a birch or pine, one is apt to find
the fly-agaric. The season in the temperate zone lasts two or at most
three weeks, with the climax coming in the middle week. The fly-
agaric emerges as a little white ball, like cotton wool. It swells rapidly
and bursts its white garment, the fragments of the envelope remaining
as patches on the brilliant red skin underneath. At first the patches
almost cover the skin, but as the cap expands they are reduced in
relative size and finally are nothing more than islands on the surface.
In fact, under certain conditions, especially as a result of rain, they are
washed off altogether and the fly-agaric then shines without blemish
as a resplendent scarlet mushroom. When the plant is gathered it
soon loses its lustre and takes on a rather dull chestnut hue. Such is
the dominant fly-agaric in Eurasia and in Washington. Oregon, and

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

British Columbia. There is another variety found commonly in the
rest of the United States, a variety that is a brilliant yellow, sometimes
with a reddish tinge in the center of the cap. These nvo varieties are
not mutually exclusive: occasionally specimens of each are found in
the other’s territor)', and attention is then drawn to the oddity in
mycological journals, perhaps in the miscellaneous notes for amateurs.
No one knows what causes these nvo varieties in different sectors of
the temperate zone, nor does anyone know whether the difference
extends beyond the coloration and certain morphological features to
the chemistry of the plant.*

When the fly-agaric is crushed and the juice milked out, the liquor
comes forth a tawny yellow. As we shall see, in the ^gVeda it is
sometimes hard to say whether the poet, when he is speaking of Soma,
has in mind the plant or the juice. The glowing adjectives of enhance-
ment that he employs could describe either.

Now let us see how the poets of the RgVeda describe Soma.

A. INTRODUCTORY.

There are no words in the RgVeda that describe Soma as black, or
gray, or green, or dark, or blue. All the great Vedic scholars from
Burnouf to Renou seem to be in agreement on this.*

B. ‘HARP AND RED.

Hdri is the most common of the colour epithets for Soma in the
RgVeda. Numerically it far exceeds all the other colour words put
together and rivals the epithet ‘bull’ that the poets never tire of
applying to Soma. The word hdri is cognate with htranya (golden) in
Sanskrit and with (g^ll) and /Xwpis (yellow) in Greek, and ulti-
mately with the English ‘gall’ and ‘yellow’.

Hdri is the precise adjective that one would wish to employ in Vedic
to describe the fly-agaric. Hdri is not only a colour word: the intensity

I My division of A. muscaria imo two varieties wiU not satisfy the mycologists. Those interested in
pursuing this matter should consult Roger Heim: Un preWime d ictaircir: cclui dc la tua-mouche. .n
the Revue de Mycologie, Vol. xxx. fasc. 4. I 9 d 5 . PP- 196 ff-

a OccasionaUy in later times hdri came to include -green* among its meanings, but this usage seems
not to be RgVedic. except possibly in the late hymns that we exclude from consideration.

Pi AfP. Ill TAWNY YELLOW PAVAMAN A

*•*

4»«l

«•»«!

»«!

EPITHETS AND TROPES

of the colour is also expressed by it. It is dazzling, brilliant, lustrous,
resplendent, flaming. In colour it seems to have run from red to light
yellow. The mythological horses of the sun-god were hdri: in this
context the word is usually rendered by ‘bay’ or chestnut , but one
doubts whether any mundane colour such as bay would describe the
steeds of the sun. They are flaming and full of brio. Hdri is of course
a term of enhancement, and by being linked together. Soma and the
sun-god’s horses are mutually enhanced. How well the breathtaking
fly-agaric fits into this picture.

Some other colour adjectives are used from time to time for Soma.
Thus on one of the many occasions when Soma is called a bull, the
bull is ‘red,* vfsd Idno (1X97‘»*). Others are:

arund: This according to Grassmann means reddish, bright brown,
golden-yellow, red, the red of morning.

arusd: Again Grassmann: red. fire-colour, applied especially to fire,
the sun, lightning, dawn. Soma, etc.

babhni: reddish brown, brown. Monier Williams gives ‘tawny’.

The juice of the fly-agaric is tawny yellow. As we have said already,
often we do not know whether the plant or the juice is being described.
The dried fly-agaric is dull by comparison with the fresh specimen,
babhru rather than hdri.

The poets of the RgVeda not only use the same adjective for Soma
and the sun-god’s horses. They compare Soma directly with the sun.
The sun is a shining disc and thus a compelling metaphor for the
fly-agaric, as compelling as it is inappropriate for any chlorophyll-
bearing plant. Here is a selection of such figures:

1 46*®*'*

Light has come to the plant, a sun equal to gold . . .
dbkud u bhd u amidve hiranyam prdti sdryah

1 1353*'

This [Soma is] thy precise share, accompanied by the rays that are
his in common with the sun

tdvdydm bhdgd rtviyah sdrasmih sirye sdcd

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

IX 2*'

He [Soma] shines together with the Sun . . .
sdm suryena rocate

IX 27^*'’

Here he is, racing with the sun, Pavamana in the sky . . .
esd suTvena hdsate pdvamdno ddhi dhdvi

He [Soma] has made the sun to shine.
esd suryam arocayat pdvamdno vicarsanih

IX 37*^"=

He has made the sun to shine.
pdvamdno arocayat jdmibhili suryam sahd

IX 6i®‘

He [Soma] joins forces with the sun’s rays,
sdm sfiryasya rasmibhih

IX 63’***

Purify thyself with this stream by which thou [Soma] madest the
sun to shine

ayd pavasva dhdrayd ydyd sftryam drocayah
IX 63 ®**’

Pavamana has hitched EtaSa [the sun’s steed] to the Sun . . .
dyukta sura eta’sam pdvamdno nunidv ddhi

1X64’

[the Soma's flowing liquor] like the rays of the sun.
pdvamdnasya visva^ut pra te sdrgd asrksata s&ryasyeva nd ra’smdyah

IX 64 ’=

thou hast whinneyed like the sun-god.
dkrdn devo nd stiryah

IX 71’*’

he has clothed himself with the fire-bursts of the sun.
ddhi tvisir adhita stiryasya

IX 76 *'

he who has been cleansed by the sun’s ray.
ydh sdryasydsirena mrjydte

EPITHETS AND TROPES

IX 86“^*

thou hast made the sun to mount the sky.

nrWiir vufa/i sfin’um dro/iuvc* divj

IX 86"®'^^

Thine, O Pavamana, are the lights, the sun.

Iiivii jyotimsi p<jva>nan<i sfiryu/j

IX 863“

He [Soma] wraps himself all around with the rays of the sun.

sd sCiryojya rasfmbliih pdri \yatd

IX 97'“'

[once] bom. thou [Soma] didst fill the sun with rays,
silryum upinv*) arkaih

IX 9733 **

O Soma juice, ... go bellowing to the sun's ray.

itrundijn?i i/ti siirk’osyoptJ rdimim

1X97^“'

the Juice has engendered light for the sun.

'janayat siirye jyctir indult

IX Ill3‘'

[The Soma] races against the rays [of the Sun], vehicle beautiful to

see, celestial vehicle beautiful to see.

stim raimi'hliir vatute darsato rdtho dai\-\'o darsato rdthah

For the past century' students of the RgVeda have been aware of a
link that ties Soma to Agni, the god of fire. This tie is intimate and all
perN asive, to the point where Bergaigne even went so far as to advance
the hypothesis that the nvo had been interchangeable. Hymns ad-
dressed to Soma sometimes call him ‘Agni’. (IX 66'’*“; 67 * 3 -“) Soma is
the child of the thunder-storm. The plant shares its liquid nature
with the rain, its brilliance w-ith the lightning (IX 22*). and the fire that
lightning causes. Its inebriating potency is thought to rival the subtlety'
of flames. ‘Make me to bum like fire started by friction . says the poet,
addressing Soma. (Viii 48*) Some years ago I gathered together evidence
indicating that a peculiar relationship existed in primitive man’s men-

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

taliry between the mushroom world and thunder-storms,’ extend-
ing far beyond the Indo-European tribes but also including them.
This relationship exists between Soma and the thunder-storm, and in
fact it reaches an intensity no where else found. The flame-like plant,
child of the thunder-bolt, possesses inebriating qualities that harmo-
nize with its celestial appearance.

These observations on the colour of Soma may have failed to con-
vey the full impression of radiance that marks Soma throughout the
RgVeda, radiance without a specific colour linked to it. Take for
example this verse:

IX 69*

With unfading vesture, brilliant, newly clothed, the immortal hdri
wraps himself all around. By authority he has taken the back [i.c.,
the vault] of heaven to clothe himself in, a spread-cloth like to a
cloud . . .

dmrktena ruiatd vdsasd hdrir dmartyo nirnijdndh pdri vyata
divds prsthdm barhdtid nirmje krtopastdranam camvdr nabhasmdyam

In the following verse the poet telescopes the life history of the fly-
agaric, and how delicately he does it! For the first time in millennia
the verse takes on meaning:

IX 71*

Aggressive as a killer of peoples he advances, bellowing with power.

He sloughs off the Asurian colour that is his. He abandons his enve-
lope, goes to the rendez-vous with the Father. With what floats
he makes continually his vesture-of-grand-occasion.
prd krstih^va iusd eti roruvad asurydm vdvMm id rinite asya tdm
jdlidti vavrim pitur eti niskrtdm upaprutam krnute nirnijam tdnd

In the first line the poet reminds us of the extraordinary strength
displayed by a simple mushroom in forcing its way to the surface
against obstacles. 'Asurian’ is not a colour: it is the radiance associated
with Asuras, which at this period in Indo-Aryan history meant the
divinities. The fly-agaric sloughs off the radiant envelope that is his to
start with, the ‘universal veil’, and prepares to meet with the Sky

I. Vide R. Gordon Wasson. 'Lightning-bolt and Mushrooms: an essay in early cultural exploration.
Festschrift For Roman Jakobson, Mouton, The Hague. 195^. pp« 605-^*^

Pi mi* n . sCrVA: Sun.

R\’ l\ tie h.is niAJc the sun in shine.

*•*

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EPITHETS AND TROPES

(= Father). He dons of course his gorgeous apparel, his nirni). his
■vesture-of-grand-occasion’. what Renou calls his robe d'appanit. Nine
times' in Mandala LX the poets speak of the iiiriii; of Soma: this is his
dazzling vesture-of-grand-occasion. Often his costume is linked with
the milk of cows: this is the fly-agaric while still studded with plaques
of snow, with tufts of snowy wool. There is one occasion on which the
poet stoops CO a banal simile:

IX 86 ***

Like a serpent he creeps out of his old skin.
dhir lid jiiriidm d'ti sarpati tvacdm

At least some of the poets knew their fly-agaric in silii. high in the
mountains: could the last phrase in this verse have been written by
anyone who did not know it?

IX 70’

He [Soma] bellows, terrifying bull, with might, sharpening his shining
[/idri] horns, gazing afar. The Soma rests in his well-appointed birth-
place. The hide is of bull, the dress of sheep,
ruvdti b/jimd vrsdWids tavisydyd sriige srsdiie /idriiii vicdtsdiui/i
d yonim semdf: siifcrtflm ni sidati gavydyi tvdg Wwvdti nirni'g a\'ydyi

'The hide is of bull, the dress of sheep.’ The red bull of IX 97'^ supplies
him with his skin; his dress is of fluffy tufts of white sheep’s wool.

Often have I penetrated into a forest in the fall of the year as night
gathered and seen the whiteness of the white mushrooms, as they
seemed to take to themselves the last rays of the setting sun, and hold
them fast as all else faded into the darkness. When fragments of the
white veil of the fly-agaric still cling to the cap, though night has taken
over all else, from afar you may still see Soma, silver white, resting in
his well-appointed birth-place close by some birch or pine tree. Here
is how three thousand years ago a priest-poet of the Indo-Aryans gave
voice to this impression:

IX 97 ’**

By day he appears hdri [colour of fire], by night, silvery white.
diva hdrir dddrse ndktatn rjrdh

I. IX 68«. 71 *. 8l>, 86*6.46. 95'. 99*. 107*6. and lo8>*.

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

Soma’s scarlet coat dominates by day; by night the redness sinks out
of sight, and the white patches, silvery by moon and starlight, take over.

C. THE BULL AND SOMA

The bull was the mightiest beast familiar to the Indo-Ary^ans. It
was the symbol of strength in the RgVeda and it was the commonest
metaphor for Soma. It exchanged attributes with Soma: both were
seated high in the mountains, both were gazing afar off, both bel-
lowed. both sharpened shining horns. Sometimes the image was
taken from Soma, sometimes from the bull, thus:

IX to’***

He [Soma] bellows, terri^ing bull, with might, sharpening his
shining horns, gazing afar . . .

nn'flti HiinKJ vrsabhds tavisydyd sfnge sisdno hdrini vicaksandh

The hallucinogenic mushrooms of Mexico act passively: the subject
seems to an outsider to be withdrawn in meditation. Soma, in addition
to translating one to Elysium, seems to have possessed a kinetic
potenq-, filling one with the joy of extraordinary physical and vocal
activity. This is reported alike in the RgVeda and in Siberia, where,
as we shall see, phenomenal displays of physical prowess sometimes
attend inebriation by the fly-agaric.

It is important that the modern reader fix his attention on the sense
of power that Soma gave to the poets of the RgVeda. They ring all the
changes on this metaphor of a bull. (Sometimes Soma is a buffalo.) For
the poets the bull is a creature that constantly sharpens his horns : there
are many such references. We have just seen Soma compared to a bull
‘sharpening his shining horns’. Once the poet resorts to synecdoche:

IX 97’'

Soma with sharpened horns [i.e., Soma the bull] attains his [full]

reach.

parinasdm krnute tigmdsrngo

Some have deduced from this verse that Soma must have been a
plant with thorns! But of course the ‘sharpened horns are nothing
more than the familiar cliche for a bull, and the bull is Soma.

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D. THE UDDER AND SOMA

The swollen hemisphere of the fly-agaric’s cap naturally suggests
an udder to the poet:

III aS’**"

Approaching his mother, he [Indra] cries for food: he looks toward
the sharp Soma as toward the udder.

upasthdyo mdtiiram dnmm aitta tiguuim aptisyad abbi semam Mhah

IV 23“'’

What priest’s sacrifice has [Indra] enjoyed, [approaching] the Soma
as it were an udder?

kathd mabdm avnihat kdsya /wtur yiijiidm jusiind abhi somam udhah

VII loi**'*

Raise the three voices that are preceded by light and that milk the
udder, which is milked of sweetness ...[.. Soma]

tisrd vdcah prd vada jyotiragrd yd etdd diilire madhudogbdm udhah

VIII 9'®*

When the swollen stalks were milked like cows with [full] udders . . .
ydd dpitdso amsdvo gdvo «d diibrd tuibabhih

1X68*

The sweet juices have hurried to the god like milch cows [to a calf].
Resting upon the barhis, noisy, with full udders, they have made the
red ones their flowing garment. [This is before the Soma plants are

pressed. They are resting in an open space, on the ground, waiting
to be pressed.]

prd devdm dchd mddhumanta indavo 'Usyadanta gdva d nd dhetuivah
barhisddo vacandvanta udhabbih parisriitam Jtsriyd nirnijain dhire

1X69«“>

The thought is placed like an arrow upon a bow; like a calf to the
udder of his mother he hastens. [The figure may not refer to Soma
but the context suggests that it does.]

WHr nd dhdnvan prdti dhiyate matir vaisd nd mdtiir upa sarjy iidhani

Milking the dear sweetness from the divine udder, he has sat in his

accustomed place.

duhand mar divydtn mddhu priydm pratndm sadhdstham dsadat

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

E. THE STALK AND SOMA

Not only is the Soma plant likened to an udder; the stalk or amsu
(literally a ‘shoot’, a perfect word for the stipe of a mushroom) is
likened to a teat:

I 137^*^

The priests milk this atnsii for you both [Varuna and Mitra, two gods],
hke the auroral milch cow, with the aid of stones they milk the Soma,
with the aid of stones.

tdm vflm dhenum nd vdsarim amum duhanty ddribhih soTnam
• • • •• ^ «•

duhanty ddribhih

II 13'“*

The first milk of the amhi is the best.

tdd dhand abhavat pipyusi pdyo 'mld/i piydsam prathamdm tdd uktkydm

III 36^*^

Indra is farther than this seat when the milked amH, the Soma, fills
him.

liras cid (ndrah sddaso vdriydn ydd fm somah ppuiti dugdho amsuh

He has tapped so to speak the pure udder of the cows, rendering the

milk clear as is the juice yielded by the amiu.

sucy ddho atrnan nd gdvdm dndho nd putdm pdrmktam amdh

V43"

The ten fingers, the two arms, harness the pressing stone; they are
the preparers of the Soma, with active hands. The one with good
hands [the priest] has milked the mountain-grown sap of the sweet
honey [Soma] ; the amhi has yielded the dazzling [sap],
diisa fesipo yunjate bdhi ddrim sdtnasya yd iamitdra suhdstd mddhvo
rdsam sugdbhastir giristhdm cdni’scadad duduhe Uikrdm ai^uh

When the swollen amlii w'ere milked like cows with [full] udders . . .
ydd dpitdso atnidvo gdvo nd duhrd ddhabhih
IX 72 ^*

They milk the thundering’ atnsu . . .

amiutn duhanti standyantam dkatam kavim kavdyo ‘pdso manidnah

I. The word for 'thundering' here, sum^yaniam, from the verb sun, to roar or to thunder, is
probably related to the Vedic and classical Sanskrit word for breast, sum. thought also to be denved
from Stan, perhaps m the image of the cloud.

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EPITHETS AND TROPES

1X95^*“

They milk the rtmsii. this bull at home on the mountain.

i,im miiniiritiiiflm mi sdiiav iimiiim (lii/Mnly giristluim

IX 107'*''*

With the milk of thy rtiiiiii . . .

amsdli pdyasd mutiire utijtlgrvir dcchd fcosuiH mfltl/iuiciitam

In the light of my fly-agaric hypothesis, the milking imagery that
pervades the Soma passages in the RgVeda acquires new meaning.
A chlorophyll-bearing plant, whether leafy or leafless, does not suggest
the udder and milking. The dominance of the word anisii - stalk,
stem, stipe -calls for comment. Over much of Eurasia certain im-
portant species of wild mushrooms are dried and strung together on
strings by the stipes, hanging caps down. (The caps shrink more than
the stipes and are more friable.) This may have been the practice in
Vedic times and would e.xpiain, if explanation be needed, the empha-
sis on the stipe in the vocabulary.’ Bogoraz, writing about the turn
of the century, says expressly that in the Chukotka the fly-agarics
were usually strung up in three’s, this being it seems the trading
unit. (Vide [22] p. 273)

F. SOMA’S ‘HEAD’

In English we speak of the ‘cap’ of the mushroom, but in many
other languages including the Vedic ‘head’ is used instead:

IX 27 ’

This bull, heaven’s head [murd/idn]. Soma, when pressed, is escorted

by masterly men into the vessels, he the all-knowing.

esd nfbhir vi niyate divo murdhd vfsd sdmo vdnepi vilvavit

IX 68^“*

While Soma enters into contact with the fingers of the officiants, he

protects his head [siros].

amsur ydvena pipise yatd nfbhih srfm jamiWtir ndsate rdksate sirah

I. When I was a boy in Chesterfield County, Virginia, the farmen would call the leaves of the
tobacco plam'stems’. When the time came for gathering the leaves, they would string them together
by the principal rib or 'stem’, perhaps a score of them together, and take them to the tobacco bam
to be dried by smoking, hanging each batch over rungs that stretched from beam to beam in the
bam. Fires were then built in troughs on the ground. This is another example where handling
practices led to a curious use of the word 'stem'.

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

IX 69*''*

For you are, O Soma juices the heads [miirdhdn] of heaven, carried

erect, creators of vital force.

ynydm hi soma pitdro mdma sthdna divo miirdhdnah prdsthitd vayaskftak
IX 71-*“^

On Soma’s head [miirdhdn] the cows with a full udder mix their best
milk in streams, [i.e., milk is mingled with Soma juice.]

d ydsmin gdvah suhutdda ddhani murdhdn chrimnty agriydm vdrmabhih

IX 933»be

The udder of the cow is swollen; the wise juice is imbued with its
streams. In the vessels the cows mix with their milk the murdhdn.
utd prd pipya iidhar dghnydyd indur dhdrdbhih sacate sumedhdh
mfadhdnam gdvah pdyasd camdsv abhi hinanti vdsubhir nd niktaih

G. FOUR POETIC CONCEITS

In speaking of Soma the poets of the RgVeda have recourse re-
peatedly to four conceits. They have never been adequately explained.
They are not descriptive in any immediate sense: they express what
the poets considered transcendental truths. Let us see how the fly-
agaric fares with them.

I. The Single Eye.'

We speak because of our descent from the andent father; the tongue
moves with the eye of Soma.

pitiih pratndsya jdnmand vaddmasi sdmasyajihvd prdjigdti cdksasd
IX 9 *

Quickened by the seven minds, he [Soma] has encouraged the rivers

free of grief, which have strengthened his single eye.

sd saptd dhitibhir hito nadyo ajinvad adruhah yd ekam dksi vdvrdhuh

IX 10®**'

I have drunk the navel [i.e., Stnna] into the navel [i.e., stomach] for
our sake. Indeed, the eye is altogether with the sun. [Bhawe rendering]
ndbhd ndbhitn na d dade cdksui cit sdrye sdcd kavir dpatyam d duhe

I. In the .^tharvaveda, XIII there is another allusion to the single eye that is relevant here.
In Wm. D. Whicncy s translation, p. 717.

EPITHETS AND TROPES

IX lo’

The sun [i.e.. Soma] looks the eye towards the dear places and

the highest place of heaven. . . . rendering]

abki priyd divds paddm adhvaryubhir githd hitdm sdrah pasyati cdksasd

IX 97^*'

[Soma] who has for eye the sun
5v<irwksd rathirdh satydUimah

The one element in these verses, some of them difficult, that concerns
us here is 'the single eye’. Does not the photograph, reproduced in
Plate X. explain the image that the poet had in mind? How perverse
this metaphor is if we have to do with a creeper, vn/lf. How meaning-
less if we deal with rhubarb.

2. Mainstay of the Sky.

The ocean [of Soma] has been cleansed in the waters; mainstay of the
sky, the Soma in the filtre, he who is favourable to us.

samudro apsu mdmjje vistamhhd dharuno divdh somah pavitre asmayuh
IX

In the navel of the earth [is situated the Soma], which is also the
mainstay of the sky . . .

nibhd prthivyd dharuno maho divo 'pdm urmau slndhusv antdr uksitdh
IX 74“*’

Mainstay of the sky, well laid, the full anisu runs throughout every-
thing . . .

div6 ydh skambho dharunah svdtata dpurno paryiti vi’svdtah
1X86”“*

. . . thou sittest in the vessels, having been pressed for Indra, inebriat-
ing drink, which inebriates, supreme mainstay of heaven, [Soma] who
gazes in the far distance.

indrdya mddvd mddyo mddah sutd divd vistambhd upamd vicaksandh
IX 86^*“'

He has spilled forth, mainstay of the sfey. the offered drink ; he flows
throughout the world . . .

dsatji skambhd divd udyato mddah pdri tridhdtur bhuvandny arsati

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

. . . father of the gods, progenitor of the moving force, mainstay of
the sky, foundation of the earth.

pitii devdnam janitd suddkso vistambho divo dhaninah prthivydh
IX 89‘“‘>

of the sky, foundation of the earth, all establishments are
in the hand of this [Soma] . . .

vistambho divo dhaninah prthivyd visvd utd ksitdyo hdste asya
IX io8‘^

Enter into the heart of Indra, receptacle for Soma, like rivers into
the ocean, thou [O Soma] who pleasest Mitra, Vanina, Vayu, supreme
Hiflinstay of heaven !

indrasya hdrdi somadhdnam d visa samudrdm iva sindhavah justo
mitrdya vdrundya vdydve divo vistamb/w uttamdh

IX I09**

Thou Soma art the mainstay of the sky, . . .

divo dhartdsi sukrdh piyusah satye vidharman vdji pavasva

We have given only a selection of the passages where Soma is a main-
stay of the sky. Others have translated this by ‘pillar’ and ‘fulcrum’
of the sky.

What poet could conceive of a creeper, a climber, any vine - some
species of Sarcostemma or Ephedra - as ‘mainstay of the sky’, ‘foun-
dation of the earth’? But the sturdy stanchion with its resplendent
capital that is the fly-agaric lends itself well to this poetic conceit.

3. The Navel.

‘Navel’, ndbhi, is one of the most important words in the RgVeda.
In its primary meaning as the umbilicus it occurs only once, in a late
hymn. X90'*. As the ‘hub’ of a wheel it recurs three times; this use
need not detain us. What we call ‘blood kin’ for the Vedic poets
was 'umbilical kin’; in this sense we find it nine times. By far the
most interesting citations of the word are the ones where it is used
transcendentally, to express a mythological idea, in a reverential
and sacred context. Soma is the Navel of the Way (= ^td), says
the poet. By Rid he means the divine order of things, a word that

Pi \ii \ii • k\ l\ t k* in.ikiA ot milk hi\ vcslurcMil-ciMiKl-oiwision.

Pi \ ii \ • K\* 1\ : 1 lu* single eve

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epithets and tropes

seems to convey somewhat the same idea as the Tao of Lao Tze.

This figurative use of the navel for Soma in Vedic times arrested
my attention. In the fungal vocabularies of various unrelated Eurasian
peoples I had come across the navel, and here it was playing a role
in the India of the Arj-ans! W'as this accidental convergence, or was
it because Soma was a mushroom -the fly-agaric?‘ True, all words
relating to childbirth play a bigger role in the vocabularies of primi-
tive peoples than among others. Thus in ancient Greece the o{i-.paXo;,
a stone carving fixed in Delphi and now in the Delphi museum, was
famed for centuries as the center of the world.

But it is a fact that peoples who know their mushrooms and live
with them in their daily lives are apt to see parallels between mush-
rooms and the umbilicus. The lexicographer Dal reports that in Russia
pup means ‘navel’ and the derivative pupyri is applied in the familiar
language to fungal growths. In contemporar)' Cambodian the word
ps 9 t means both navel and mushroom. This word’s primary meaning
is navel and it is clearly borrowed from the Malayo-Polynesian family
of languages, where the hypothetical proto-Malayo-Polynesian word
was*pHS?g, ‘navel’, a word with far flung progeny in languages spoken
off the east coast of Asia, including /leso in Japanese, whose medieval
form was/eso, stemming back to *peso in proto-Japanese. In standard
contemporary Korean the word recurs in the form p'sat. There it
means only ‘mushroom’, but in two southwestern dialects spoken
only on the island of T§edju, in the province of Cholla Namdo, words
that may stem back to the same root mean the navel. In these dialects
the navel takes the forms potov and pdtov-ro.*

In April 1966 Georges Dumezil introduced to me a young Turkish
national, Orhan Alparslan, a student of architecture at the University
of Paris. He came from a village, Zennun, situated off the highway

I. One of our valuable sources about the fly-agaric in Siberia is G. H. von Langsdorf. He found it in
use as an inebriant among the Kamchadal. In discussing its fungal identification he writes: '. . . the
Kamchadal mushroom has a cap with a rmvcMiJaprotuberancc in the middle. . . .'! Vide [loj. p. 147 .
The word in the German text is ncbtlfSrmig.

^ I am indebted to Dr. Johannes Rahder of Yale Univenity for thU information about the Korean
dialects. He relied on the two volume work on Korean dialects compiled by the late Professor Shinpei
Ogura, Cfcwen-go Hogen no Katkyu (Studies of Korean Dialects); publishers, Iwanami. Tokyo iojj
PP-97-98ofVol. I. ^

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

running from Ankara to Samsun, at about the half-way point. He
was a Circassian and his village was largely Qrcassian. He had been a
shepherd boy in his childhood, and he possessed a remarkably clear
memory. He described for me the various kinds of mushrooms that
he had learned to know and gave me the names for them. He drew
the shagg)- mane - Coprinus comatus explained that it quickly turned
into black ink but the black was tinged with violet, and gave its local
name as gobek mantari, Turkish words meaning ‘navel mushroom’.

Even in the scientific vocabulary’ of mycologists the navel has crept
in. Many species of mushrooms are either ‘umbilicate’ or umbonate’,
depending on whether the ‘navel’ is a pocket in the middle of the
cap or a protrusion. There is a genus, the Omphalia, whose name
comes from the Greek navel. True, these are neo-classical

words devised in the last two centuries by scientists, but scientific
names, especially those devised in the youth of the science (such as
is here the case), often reflect facts lying deep in the consciousness
of the race. The muscaria, for example, in Amanita mnscaria, expresses
the folk traditions of the Germanic race.

It is not my contention that these far flung analogies in vocabulary
have influenced each other; quite the contrary. I believe a mushroom
is apt to suggest the navel to the primitive observer, wherever he be,
and that the Vedic people, obsessed as they were with the fly-agaric,
applied to it the navel analog)', and. imbued it with a multitude of
transcendental meanings. Already we have seen a number of these
figures of speech. We learned in 1X74^ that Soma was the Navel of
the Way. Here are others:

IX 79 *^^

Your highest navel is attached in heaven; your fingers grow on the

back of the earth.

divi te ndbhd paramo yd ddadi prtbivyds te ruruhub sdnavi ksipah

We recall how the single eye of Soma was tied to the eye of the sun in
IX 10*; in that same verse the navel now figures intelligibly:

IX 10®

I have drunk the navel [i.e.. Soma] into the navel [i.e.. stomach] for

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EPITHETS AND TROPES

our sake. Indeed, the eye is altogether with the sun. I have milked
the child of the wise. [B/itJwe rendering]

ndbhd ndHn»n na d dade cdferwi cit siirye sdcd kaver dpatyam d didie
Again t\vo hymns later Soma is called the all-seeing navel of the wise:

l.\ iz*

The sharp seer, in heaven's navel, is magnified in the woolen filtre.

Soma the wise, possessed of good intelligence.

divo ndbhd vicnfesdno 'yyo vdre mabiyate somo yah siikrdtuli kavih

In the following verse Soma’s navel is associated with the ‘head’
(= cap) of the mushroom:

1 43 ®***'

Thy descendants, O Immortal One, according to the supreme
institution of the Way, receive them on thy navel, O Soma, thou
who art the head [of heaven];

yds te prajd amrtasya pdrasmin dhdmam rtdsya miirdhd ndbhd soma vend

Soma is repeatedly said to be in the navel of the earth, in the navel
of heaven. It was a practice of the RgVeda poets to use epithets proper
to one god when speaking of another. Agni and Soma, fire and the
■fire-agaric’ (as I am tempted to call the fly-agaric) thus exchange epi-
thets. and ‘navel’ is often applied to Agni. But I think it will not be
disputed that the navel figure belongs to Soma; the frequency of its
use with Soma and the elaboration of the uses make it peculiarly

Soma's. As we have seen, pp. 39 ff. ‘Agni’ for the poet is a way of
saying ‘Soma’.

4. The Filtres.

In the RgVeda filtres figure prominently. One of them, a filtre of
lamb’s wool, presents no problem. After the Soma had been pounded
with stones and mixed with water, it was forced through a filtre or
strainer, which caught the pulp and fibrous elements and allowed the
tawny yeUow liquor to pass through and run down to the vats.

But the RgVeda speaks of two other filtres that have always baffled
the scholars. If Soma is the fly-agaric they present no problem. The
woolen filtre is in fact the second or middle filtre.

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

The First Filtre

In the order of their function, the verses speak first of a celestial
filtre, the filtre that I offer to the reader in Plate xu, where the sun’s
rays, escorting Soma down from the sky, are caught and held on the
fiery back of heaven {= the pileus of the fly-agaric).

In the first verse that I shall quote the poet says expressly that King
Soma has the filtre for his chariot, and immediately thereafter dtes
the thousand studs, bhrsti, that carry him to fame; i.e., the white
patches on his cap.

IX 86-^'^

King, having the filtre for chariot, he has attained the victory prize;
a thousand studs, he conquers puissant renown.

rdjd pavitraTatho vdjam druhat sahdsrabhrstir jayati hdvo brhdt
IX los

(This verse has puns difficult to translate. Its meaning is clear. The
Soma plants are called ‘suns’, sdra. a natural metaphor in the light
of our various plates. The heavenly Somas spread the strainer of
their (= the sun’s) rays for themselves to come down).
apandso vivdsvato jdnanta usdso bhdgam silrd dnvam vi tanvate

How clear this would have been for Geldner and Bhawe if they had
possessed the key. Bhawe, commenting on this verse in his Part I, p. 53,
refers to the ‘mysterious sieve through which the sun s rays pass'.
Geldner before him had sensed that the Somas and the Suns are the
same, and in his commentary had divined that the filtre straining
the sun’s rays is referred to elsewhere, notably in IX 66*, 76*, and 86**.’

IX 66***^

Thy clear rays spread over the back of heaven, the filtre, O Soma, . . .
tdva ^ukrdso arcdyo divds prsth^ vi tanvate pavitram soma dhdmabhih

As a poetic figure for the fly-agaric, there seems nothing to explain
here. In this same hymn, verses 19-21, Soma is addressed as Agni,

z. Harvard Oriental Series. 35. p. i7» ftn. (o 5c.

I’l Ml i\ • U\ l\ The hiJe i> ot hull, the J^e^^ of sheep.

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EPITHETS AND TROPES

i e., the fly-agaric as fire. (We have already called attention to this on
p. 39.) The fly-agaric is both fire and sun, it catches the sun’s rays on
its back and holds them there, where they fibre the Soma juice into
the plant. The same theme recurs in

This Soma, which today circulates in the distance, which is a cleanser,
may it cleanse us in the filcre!

The fibre that has been spread in thy flame, O Agni, with it. cleanse
our song.

Thy fibre. O Agni. equipped with flames, may it cleanse us, cleanse
us with the fruits of sacred songs!

With these both, the fibre and the fruits (of song], O God Savitr,
cleanse me through and through!

pdvamdnah so adyd nah pavitrena vicarsaiii/j yah potd sd pundtu nah
ydt te pavitram ardsy dgne vitatam antdr d brdhma tina pumhi nah
ydt te pavitram arcivdd dgne tena punihi nah brahmasavaih punilii n<i/j
ubhdbhydm deva savitah pavitrena savena ca mdm punflii visvdta/i

Here Soma is addressed under the name of Agni. Metaphorically the
miraculous plant seems to share every attribute of Agni. - flame-
coloured. subtle, it purifies with its fibre as fire does with its flames.

In the following verse the strainer is not mentioned by name. Soma,
Lord of the Universe, cleanses himself in the Sun's rays, the celestial
fibre:

IX 76 *

Monarch of everything that sees the sun-Ught, Soma cleanses himself
Triumphing over the Prophets, he made the Word of the Way to
resound, he who is cleansed by the Sun’s ray, he the father of
poems, Master-Poet never yet equalled!

vih’osya rdja pavate svardfia rtdsya dhitim rdsdl avivaiat ydh
siryasydsirena mr)ydte pitd matindm dsamastakdvyah

IX Ss****

Thy fibre has been spread, O Brdhmanaspati [Soma] . . .
pavitram te vitatam brahmanas pate prabhiir gdtrani pdry ed viivdtah

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

The filtre of the burning [Soma] has been spread in heaven’s home.
Its dazzling mesh was spread afar . . . They climb the back of
heaven in thought.

tapes pavitram vitatam divas pade socanto asya tdntavo vy dsthiran
dvanty asya pavitdram didvo divds prsthdm ddhi tist/wnti cetasd

In this verse the ‘filtre’ that we see in Plate XII is translated to heaven
in the flame of the sacrifice. How easy it is for the poet to move from
the earthly to the transcendental plane. How compact is the cosmo-
logy. Soma, fire, sun, sun’s rays, the navel of the earth, the single eye,
mainstay of the sky, celestial strainer, thunder-storm, aurora - they
are all interlocked, meeting in our resplendent fly-agaric.

Here are further verses in the same tenor:

IX 863»*‘*

As for thee, O Soma-juice, thou art clarified in the filtre so as to

establish thyself [in] space for the gods.

tvdfM pavitre rdjaso vidhannani devebhyah soma pavamdna puyase

The Soma envelops himself all around with rays of the sun, . . .
sd s&ryasya ra’smibhih pdri vyata tdntum tanvdnds trivftam ydthd vidi

IX9i3«‘

... By a thousand paths free of dust. Soma, armed with verses,

knowing the Word, the Sun passes the filtre.

sahdsram fkvd pathihhir vacovid adhvasmdbhih sAro dnvam vl ydti

It seems that in this verse the Sun is a metaphor, standing for Soma.

The Third Filtre

A third filtre is mentioned in two verses of the RgVeda, and this
brings us back to the discussion of the Two Forms of Soma on pp. 23 ff.
which we promised to resume at a later point in the argument.

The Guardian of the I(td [Soma] cannot be deceived, he of the good

inspiring force: he carries three fibres inside his heart.

rtdsya gopd nd ddbhdya sukrdtus trf sd pavitrd hfdy dntdr d dadhe

EPITHETS AND TROPES

IX 97^^

Thou runnest through the three filtres stretched out; thou flowest
the length, clarified. Thou art Fortune, thou art the Giver of the
Gift, liberal for the liberal. O Soma-juice.

5 dm trt pavitrd vildttzny esy d'nv ^fcdin tfitavd5t puydmdnah dsi b/idgo
dsi ddtrdsya datd 'si maghdvd maghdvaiibhya indo

Let us assume the fly-agaric surmise is well founded. Then the third
filtre becomes clear: the Soma juice that is drunk by Indra and
‘Vayu’ in the course of the liturgy’ is filtered in their organisms and
issues forth as sparkling yellow urine, retaining its inebriating virtue
but having been purged of its nauseating properties.

That the priceless ambrosia was filtered down from the celestial
sphere on the sun’s rays into the plant is clear. That the Soma juice
was filtered through the lamb’s wool into the vessels at the place of
sacrifice is also clear. What happened next? ’Indra’ and ‘Vayu’ con-
sumed the liquor mixed with milk or curds and it would appear that
their condition was a matter of considerable anxiety. How else are
we to explain the poets’ preoccupation with the Soma as it passed
through their organisms? The poets do not stress the inebriation of
the priests. Instead they take us with Soma into Indra’s heart, into his
belly or bellies, into his entrails. If these verses do not mean that in
the Vedic ritual the priests were impersonating the gods, what do
they mean?

Purify thyself in Indra’s stomach, O juice ! As a river with a vessel,
enable us to pass to the other side, thou who knowest; thou who
battiest as a hero, save us from disgrace!

[ars]htdrasyendo jathdram d pavasva

ndvd nd sindhum dri parsi vidvdit c/ifiro nd yudhyann dva uo niddh spall

Or the preceding verse:

IX 70«

Clarify thou thyself, O Soma, for the invitation to the gods. Thou
who art a bull enter into the heart of Indra, receptacle for Soma!
Enable us to traverse the evil passages saving us from oppression !

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

For he who knows the country gives the directions to him who
informs himself.

pdvasva soma de\'dvitaye vfsendrasya hdrdi somadhdnam d Vila
piird no badhdd duritdti pdraya ksetravid dhi disa dha viprcchati

Obviously there was doubt about the outcome of the perilous passage.
Tndra’ and his colleagues had to know their business, had to be ex-
perienced pilots. It looks as though Bhawe was justified in saying
that skill was needed in mixing the Soma juice with milk or curds in
the right way.

Is not the following verse imbued with new meaning, in the light
of my interpretation, - the human waters being put into movement?
1 X 63 ’

Clarify thou thyself by that stream by which thou madest the sun to
shine, putting into movement the human waters!
ayd pavasva dhdrayd ydyd sdryam drocayah
hinvdnd mdnusir apdh

Here are other references to Soma in the belly of Indra:

IX 72“**

. . . the [Officiants] . . . draw the Soma by milking into the belly of
Indra.

sdkdm vadanti bahdvo tnamsliuz indrasya sdmamjathdre ydd dduhiih
IX 72****

Spurred on by the two arms of the Officiant, in jets, the pressed
Soma is clarified according to its nature, suitable for thee, O Indra!
nfbdhubhydm codito dhdrayd suto 'nusvadftdm pavate sdma indra te

IX 76 ’*

O Soma Pivamana, . . . penetrate into the entrails of Indra !
indrasya soma pdvamdna urmfna tavisydmdno jathdresv d visa

IX So***

O Soma, thou clarifiest thyself for Indra; . . .
indrdya soma pavase vfsd mddah

IX 8o5*

In the belly of Indra the inebriating Soma clarifies itself.

Frosya kuksd pavate madlntama

M( \t ■ \<\ \\

•o'" ’Ih«»u .in ilu' n1.lMl^l.t\ ol ilu* sls\

*•*

4»«l

«•»«!

»«!

EPITHETS AND TROPES

Here is a clear statement. As in the other two filtres. Soma is clari-
fying itself in the belly of Indra. in preparation for a further step.

The waves of Soma Pavamana advance into the belly of Indra.
prd sonitisyti pdYivndnasycrmdyii iiidrasya yiinii jailiduvn supesiisiih

IX 85**^

Cleansed like a winning race horse, thou hast spilled thyself in the
belly of Indra, O Soma !

marHiTjy'dMuIne diyo na sunasir imirasya sema jathdre sam afcsttnili

The 86th hymn is climactic for Indra as Soma’s filtre:

IX 86*

Thy inebriating drinks, swift, are released ahead, like teams running
in divers directions, like the milch cow with her milk towards her
calf, so the Soma juices, waves rich in honey, go to Indra. thunder-bolt
carrier.

prd te mddaso madirdsa dsdvo 'srtsata rdthydso ydthd pftlmk dhenur
ud valsdm pdyasdbln' vdjrtnitm indram itidavo inddliumaiita urmdyii/t

IX 86J

Like a race horse launched in movement for the victory prize, flow,

O Soma, thou who procures! the light-of-the-sun for heaven’s vat,
whose mother is the pressing stone: thou. Bull, seated in the filtre
above the calf’s wool, clarify’ing thyself, thou Soma, that Indra may
have his pleasure!

dtyo fid hiydno abln vdjam arsa svarvit kdsam divo ddrirndtaram
vfsd pavitre ddhi sdno avydye somah pimdnd indriyiya dhdyase

IX 86‘**

He advances to the rendez-vous with Indra, the Soma juice . . .
pro aydsid indur indrasya nisfertdm

IX 86”“*

By the action of the streams he has made the utensils resound while
penetrating into the heart of Indra.

krand sindhundm kaldsdh aviva’sad indrasya hdrdy avisdn inafusiHii/i
IX 86”

Clarily thyself, O Soma, in the celestial structures of thine essence,
thou who hast been released roaring into the vessel, in the filtre.

PART ONE . CHAPTER VIII

Lodged in the belly of Indra, roaring with vigour, held in hand by
the Officiants, thou hast made the sun to mount the sky.

pdynsva soma divyesu dhdmasu STjdnd indo kaldk pavi'tra d sidann
indrasya jathdre kdnikradan nfbhir yatdh suryam drohayo divi
IX 86^3ab

Pressed by the pressing-stones, thou clarifiest thyself in the filtre, 0
Soma-juice, when penetrating into the entrails of Indra!

ddrihhih swtd/i pavase pavitra dh indav indrasya jathdresv dviUn

IX io 8 's

For Indra, that he may drink, clarify thou thyself, O Soma, held in
hand by the Lords, well armed, inebriating . . .

indrdya soma pdtave nfbhir yatdh svdyudho madintamah pdvasva
rnddbimattamah

IX io 8 ‘^

Enter into the heart of Indra, Soma’s receptacle, like the rivers into
the ocean, thou, [O Soma,] who pleasest Mitra, Varuna, Vayu, O thou
supreme Mainstay of the Sky!

indrasya hdrdi somadhdnam d visa samudra'm iva sindhavah jiisto
mitrdya vdrundya vdydve divo vistambhd nttamdh

IX 109 '*

O Soma, advance into the belly of Indra, having been held in hand

by the Officiants, pressed by the stones!

prd soma ydhtndrasya kuksd nfbhir yemdno ddribhih sutdh

H. ‘Tongue of the Way’.

The second verse of IX 75 begins with 'Tongue of the Way’ (rtdsya
jihvd), and the poet continues to apostrophize Soma as the source of
eloquence. ‘The Way’ is Rtd, the divine order of things. Abel Bergaigne'
remarked that the expression, ‘Tongue of the Way’, was picturesque
and said it meant prayer. Caland and Henry,* on the other hand, were
baffled. 'Tongue of the Way’ could not be translated in any other
way, but how could Soma be a tongue? These scrupulous scholars did
not visualize the fly-agaric: its cap, the full blown red tongue, held
the clue to the little mystery.

t. Abel Bergaigne. La Religion VMi<jue, Vol. m, p. 24X.

2. W. Caland and V. Henry, VAgnisfoma, Paris. 1906, Para. 221, p. 538, fin. 7 *

Pi \ 1 1 \u ls\’ l\ Sn*^ \\ k\\\ ilnuiN.nul kniih> lu* ic)iu]uri'N nu^lu\ rcnoNs n

Pi Ml Mil • K\ 1\ I\nii;uc ihc* \\ .n .

*•*

4»«l

«•»«!

»«!

EPITHETS AND TROPES

I. The ‘Knots’ or ‘Knobs’ or ‘Studs’ or 'Spikes’ on the Fly-Agaric.

Already we have seen how well the spots on the fly-agaric serve as
the first of the three ‘filtres’ for Soma. In a more mundane sense these
spots are called in \ edic Wirsfi, a word that is used for the knobs or
studs on a cudgel, as on the cudgel ol Indra. With his thousand
knobs or studs Soma conquers potent fame: so say the hymns itt

two places. IX 83*'^ ‘^nd 86 '“’'*.

There is vet another passage pertinent to this theme, and it illus-
trates well the kind of problem that working in a language as remote
as \ edic leads one into. Early in my inquiries I came upon a verse. IX is**,
that seemed to present an obstacle to my fly-agaric thesis. According to
the poet of this hymn, when the Soma plant is pressed and then run
through the woolen filtre, it leaves behind in the filtre its 'knots’ or
‘nodules’. (The \’edic word, in the plural, is pdriisJ.) There has been
sonte difficulty with the sense of the sentence, but agreement on this
particular word. Now mushrooms have no knots or nodules, which
are characteristic of shrubs and trees. Here was a hurdle to cross or I
was in trouble.

The latest translation of this hymn is S. S. Bhawe’s (1957), and I
found that he had devoted two pages of concentrated commentary
to all the words that attend these ‘knots’.' Suddenly, without his
knowing the full import of what he was saying, he cleared up my
difficulties. The ‘knots’, it seemed, had been ‘sticking to’ (piWcuul)
Soma’s body, and they were shining (vasitni) also! His verbal analysis
is original and seemingly sound. Without knowing of our fly-agaric
thesis, he comes out with a sense that fits the fly-agaric perfectly.
The shining 'rays’ (as the Vedic poets are always referring to them),
the scales or white patches or knobs or warts sticking to the cap (as
we say) of the fly-agaric, are left behind in the strainer. W^hether the
Vedic word pdriis covers a semantic area broad enough to embrace
not only the knots in wood but also the ‘knobs’ on the fly-agaric's cap.
or whether the poet was resorting to a metaphor as we do in English,
I leave to Vedic scholars to determine. For the Indo-Aryans the white
spots of the fly-agaric were shining (vdsuni) knobs or studs {pdrnsd)

1. Part I, pp. 71-3; vide p. 6 . fin. i.

PART ONE • CHAPTER VIII

sticking {pibdana) to the cap. This example illustrates the delicacy of
the task of the translator, the rare prescience of gifted students who
are oft-times groping in the dark, and finally the help it will be to
the scholar when at last he knows the identity of Soma and can
familiarize himself with all its characteristics and properties.

As an instance of this help I will cite the word sahdsrapajas, an epi-
thet for Soma that occurs twice in the RgVeda in almost identical
passages. (RgVeda ix 13’ and 42^). The first part of this word offers
no difficulty: sabdsra- means 'thousand’. But what is the meaning of
a thousand -pdjas^ On this there has been much comment but no
agreement. Some have thought the word meant ‘forms’, others have
suggested 'colours’, and yet a third commentator sees in it ‘rays’. But
in the light of our Plate xn and our discussion of the First Filtre are we
not simply viewing the thousand ‘studs’ from a different metaphoric
angle? This is consonant with the imagery of the First Filtre, the rays
escorting Soma down from their heavenly abode and then filtering
the divine inebriant with midwifely solicitude into the plant. We do
not yet know the precise meaning of -pdjas, nor the anatomy of its
poetic associations, but we do localize it and, for lack of a better, rays
will do. The Vedic poets see the white spots on the fly-agaric either
as ‘studs' or as sparkles of the divine light. (We in the English-speaking
world see them as warts disfiguring a repulsive toadstool.) If I am right
in identif>'ing Soma with the fly-agaric, then in re-studying the whole
of the RgVeda we must at all times be alive to the numinous glow of
this awesome plant, a plant with miraculous inebriating virtue fully
matched by its vesture-of-grand-occasion. When still in the dark as
to its identity, great scholars like Renou have felt that Soma was the
heart and soul of the RgVeda. If we know now what Soma was, like
the holy osadhi itself the IlgVeda with its thousand hymns - *sahdsrarc
- is certainly destined to glow again with a rebirth of radiance from
its thousand facets.

SOMA AND THE FLY

Docs the flv-agaric help us in understanding this verse, which has
troubled the translators? It reads, in part, as follows:

1 119 ’“*’

To you, O Asvins, that flv betrayed the Soma.

¥ ¥ •

Ilia vam matl/iamaa maf'SiIirarapaH »»a»fe sewasyaiihji) /iiivaavati

The word for ‘fly’. matsiJlvi. might mean bee. The word for Soma is
Hitiif/iu. ‘honey’, a Irequent metaphor tor Soma. The verse might
well be interpreted as meaning that the bees have betrayed their
honey to the Asvins. This is grammatically and semantically unex-
ceptionable, but it is banal to the point of inanity. On the other hand,
if a fly betrayed Soma to the Asvins. we are plunging to the depths of
Indo-European folklore. Throughout northern Europe, wherever the
fly-agaric is well known, there is a folk belief that the fly-agaric is
linked to flies. Here we find the statement that the fly betrayed Soma
to the Asvins. Did the fly lead the Asvins to the fly-agaric?

I have conducted experiments with the fresh Eurasian fly-agaric,
splitting the stipe (stem, dmsii) lengthwise and letting it bleed. Where
flies have access to such stipes, the flies are drawn to them, suck the
juice, and collapse helpless into a stupor. They do not die from the
juice. On the contrary they recover completely in a matter of hours
or one or two days. While in the stupefied state they may of course be
killed by their enemies or be blown away to their deaths in non-viable
surroundings.’

WORDS USED FOR SOMA IN THE RGVEDA

The name Soma is derived from the root su, meaning 'to press’.
Soma is the pressed one. Another word for Soma is dndhas. Both Soma
and dfhilitjs are used in the Rg\'eda to designate the plant and its
juice, dndluis being probably cognate with avO-oc, the Greek word for
‘flower’. (It is as though the .Aryans called Soma t/re flower.) In the
Rg\'eda ‘Soma’ and dndhas are used e.xclusively for the sacred plant
and its Juice, but the plant must have carried a name before it was
elevated to its high station as a god and before it could have been
called by a name derived from the liturgical act of pressing; this early
name is lost. The \’edic le.xicographer Grassmann translated dndhas
bv the word Kraut, ‘herb’, such as ‘food for cattle’. In classical Sanskrit
one of the common words for ‘herb’ is tfna, and, surprisingly, in the
earliest Sanskrit dictionarv, the Atnarakosa (ca. A.D. 450), it is defined
not only as ‘herb’ but as ‘mushroom’. In the RgVeda tfna occurs from
time to time but no translator had ever found a passage where he
said it meant ‘mushroom’. But there is a hvmn directed to the Rbhus
that says:

1 161"*^

In the uplands you have created tfnam for this people, in the lowlands

ingenious waters.

uda’atsx’ asind akrnotand tfnam mvdtsv apdh svapasydyd narah

Because Soma is repeatedly associated in the hymns with the heights,
if I am right that Soma is the fly-agaric, this sentence should be
reviewed to consider whether tnia does not mean here the divine
plant, the fly-agaric. Another word often used for Soma in the RgVeda
is osadhi, and the lexicographers tell us that it also meant herb . But
in the \’edic mind the plant categories did not correspond precisely
to our own, and the three terms for ‘herb’ seem to have embraced all
small fleshy plants. Similarly, as we shall see, the Chinese term c/n 7 i ^
originally meant a fleshy plant, but as time passed its meaning came
to be confined to a particular mushroom.

WORDS FOR SOMA IN THE RG\ EDA

M.iny other n.iines are applied to Soma in the RgWda, all ot them
metaphors stressing one or another ot its aspects. In passages where
the drink receives the highest homage it is sometimes called
cognate with ‘ambrosia’, the liquor ot immortality. That which is
pressed is ‘stalk’. Sometimes Soma is called simply the

plant’. The juice is pu’wiMitlMii. from the root pii, ‘clear flowing’, or
indu, the ‘bright drop’, or sometimes drapsii. the ’drop’, or the
fluid', or pifii. the ‘beverage’, or imidu, inebriation’, or imh/Ziin honey’.

The rich Soma vocabulary reflects the importance ot the plant and
its sacred role. The ordinary word for a common or garden mushroom
occurs only once in the RgVeda, in a hvmn addressed to Indra, w here
the poet says:

8jb

I 84

When will he trample upon the godless mortal as upon a jlr-jilmpij?
tirad/hiSiim humyiim ivu sp/uirat

Yaska, the earliest of the commentators on the RgVeda, who lived
not later than the 5th century B.C. said ^.siiinpa meant a mushroom.
aliic/itttni’J, and Geldner accepts this identification. The word survives
in contemporary Hindi as and in the market place of Old

Delhi one buys under that name a wild mushroom belonging to the
genus Phellorina, close to or identical with P/iel/orinti Delestrd Dur.

It is not surprising, on the contrary it is to be e.xpected. that the
sacred mushroom should be in a category by itself, segregated from
the rest of the mushroom world. This is what happens among the
Mazatec Indians ot Me.xico, in whose language there are two words,
one that embraces mushrooms belonging to sacred species, and the
other that includes the rest of the fungi. Among the Mazatecs the
two words neatly divide the tungal world between them.

‘Mushroom’ in classical Sanskrit is c/tallrd. In thesenseof ‘mushroom’

this word may not have existed in Vcdic times: certainly the Aryans
did not bring it down from the North. The word itself comes from
the root chad, ‘to cover’, and its primary meaning is ‘parasol’. For
southern peoples the parasol, furnishing protection from the sun, is
of importance, and from Cambodia to Ethiopia it is a symbol’of

PART ONE • CHAPTER X

authority, in India the mark of the Ksatriya caste, the rulers, the
rajputs. Until recently the northern peoples have not known the
parasol or the umbrella. When the Ar) ans invaded Iran and India,
they gave to this newly discovered utensil an Ar)’an name, chattra,
and later extended the meaning of that name to embrace the fleshy
capped fungi.

In India today mushrooms do not play an important role. Only in
the Northwest, in Kashmir and the Punjab, are they much relished,
as well as among Muslims and Sikhs in the Punjab and Delhi.
Agdricjis hortensis (our cultivated mushroom, the champigtwn de Paris)
is almost unknown, as well of course as Agaricus campestris. The mush-
room that enjoys some popularity for the table is Pleurotus Eryngii in
various of its subspecies. In Delhi large quantities of Pi Eryngii s. sp.
nebrodensis are imported from Afghanistan for sale in the market,
where they are called dhingri. In Kashmir there is a smaller variety,
PI.Eryngii Fr. ex D. C. forma tesse/atas, that goes by the name of hedar,
hhida. The aristocrats of the mushroom world in Kashmir are the
morels, called kana-g^cb, the 'ear-morel’; recently they have become
too expensive for the people of Kashmir to eat, and today they are
gathered only for export to the Punjab, New Delhi, and Paris. But they
still figure in the folklore of Kashmir and must be served at wedding
feasts, if there are means to buy them. For mushrooms considered
inedible, feafear-Hial(t)d, ‘dog’s urine’, and endless variations of the
same expression, are the dominant word throughout India. In the lan-
guages derived from Sanskrit of modern India I have found no trace
of a sacred mushroom.

The Laws of Manu, Chap. V 5, place a tabu on mushrooms for the
three upper castes of Hindus (= ‘twice-bom men’): ‘Garlic, leeks and
onions, mushrooms [kavaka] and all plants springing from impure
substances are unfit to be eaten by nvice-born men.’ It is impossible
to say whether this prohibition is related to a sacred use of the fly-
agaric in Vedic times; probably not. The hermit or ascetic lies under a
similar inhibition. Chap. \T 14: ‘Let him avoid honey, flesh, and
mushrooms growing on the ground [Wiiimi kavaka], bhustpia , . . .
Elsewhere Wiiistrn^i is said to mean, among other plants, mushrooms

WORDS FOR SOMA IN THE RGVEDA

that grow on the ground, the same as Mitiini ClearK the Hindus

are nnaiphobes. In the Punjab. Kashmir, and the Northwest, where
the population has been Muslim and Sikh tor centuries -in the
Indus Willev. south of the Hindu Kush - there is a deep-seated m\ co-
philia running counter to the general Hindu attitude. This is the area
where the Rg\ eda was composed.

There is one episode conspicuous in the religious annals ot India in
which mushrooms plaved. or may have played, a decisive role: the
death of Buddha at the age ot 8o in the middle of the sixth century B. C.
He was making his wav with his followers, talking and preaching as
he went, through the kingdom of Magadha. the present state of
Bihar, and had paused for the night at a place called Pava. One Chunda.
a metal worker, asked him for dinner and he accepted. Among other
dishes Chunda served sfiiLMr.i-nMifd.iVii. called in one recension siUmt.!-
Hi.iHs.i. (These words are from the Buddhist scriptures written in the
Pali language, a tongue spoken a century or more later than the
events we are describing and farther to the west. The Buddha himself
must have spoken Magadhi Prakrit, also closelv related to Sanskrit.)
The two terms mean the same thing, but what is that meaning? The
first word means 'swine’, boar’, cognate with the Latin sus. English
‘swine’. The second element means soft flesh. ‘Soft flesh of swine?’
Swine’s soft flesh?’ i.e.. the soft flesh of which pigs are fond? A sub-
jective genitive or an objective genitive? Buddhism has never made
much of this, but the two great schools. Mahayana and Theravada,
have disagreed on it. The Mahayana school has held that the Buddha
ate pork, it proved to be bad. and he died of the effects, after dvsentery.
The Theravada school believes, on the other hand, that he died from
mushrooms, a food of which pigs are fond. A Chinese translation of the
Dig/M \il.M\M. including the Book of the Great Decease, made in the
beginning of the fifth cenrur\- A.D.. rendered siUMr.j-Hi.hf.f,iv.i by mii
erh, tree mushroom’.' I record the extraordinarv circumstances of
Buddha s death because they bring in mushrooms, but ! am not pre-

r Vui« (,) and the Buddha s Death*, by Fa Chow. SiU er Jubilee Vol of Annuls of

Bhandarkar Onental Research Institute. Poona. .942. pp. tar-m: and (1) -Nouniture du Dernier
Repas du Buddha . by .\ndre Bareau, .Mefjn|<y J-lnJiMume. Editions E. de Boccard. Paris. 1908.

PART ONE • CHAPTER X

pared at this time to advance an explanation for the myth that would
link it with Soma: the sources - Chinese, Sanskrit, and Pali - need to
be re-examined with minute care. Nor. so far as I now know, are the
Rg\'eda and Soma to be associated with the triple-tiered cbattra
(‘parasol’ and ‘mushroom’) that surmounts the great stupa at Sanchi,
one of the earliest and most awe-inspiring Buddhist structures that
sur\ive; nor with the megalithic ‘mushroom-stones’ found in great
numbers in Kerala, and less often in Nepal.

misc:ellanea

George Watt, the botanist who devoted his lite to the study ot the
flora of India," is said to have declared that ‘no plant is known at
present [1884] which would fulfil all the requirements [of Soma], and
he lays particular stress on the fact that the vague and poetical de-
scriptions given of the Soma make any scientific identification almost
impossible.'* Watt did not read Sanskrit, much less Vedic. He did not
allow tor the deficiencies in the translations ot the RgWda on \\ hich he
depended: he may have been unaware of them. The early renderings
oftheRgX’eda made the ancient poets sound like upper class Europeans
of the 19th centurv, trock-coated, with their inhibitions and pruderies,
their etiolated religious outlook. Even today one hears it said that the
Rg\’eda is vague and contradictory about Soma. This recalls the blind
men who were defining the elephant by feeling each one a different
part of the huge beast. Their reports were contradictory indeed. Who
is to say that the RgX'eda is contradictory without first knowing
what Soma is?

The hymns of the RgVeda fit the fly-agaric like a glove. True, one
must possess some awareness of the psychotropic plants of the NN orld
and their role in primitive religion. Given that familiarity, a reading
of Geldner, Renou, and Bhawe leads straight to the fly-agaric.

Indians and Westerners who reverence the RgVeda for its religious
feeling will perhaps be revoked by the dual forms of Soma and will
even experience a visceral resistance to this solution of the enigma.
Furthermore, a few Vedic scholars may know a momentary pang of
regret. For almost a century and a halt Soma has been the great un-
known of Vedic studies, until this unknown had come to be considered
a permanent built-in feature of this remote area of learning. Playing
the Vedic game with aces wild has had its charms: it allowed individual

I. Watt’s monumental work. Dirtionury of the Economic Froducis cf India, 1889-1896, edited and partly
written by him, in many volumes, is a major legacy of the British rule in India, of lasting value.
1. Quoted from Max Muller. Collected Worts. London. Vol. x, 1888. p. 223. The observations at-
tributed by Miillcr to Watt do not appear in Watt's published statements.

PART ONE • CHAPTER XI

leeway in reading difficult passages. It permitted even the great
Bergaigne, in an unguarded moment, to suppose that Soma was
merely some plant or other expressly selected by Aryan priests who
went looking high in the mountains for this purpose (an ‘Ecclesiastical
Commission’, we would call it), that the myth of Soma’s mountain
origin might be fulfilled as though the myth came first and the plant
was an afterthought ! This was possible only because Soma remained
a blank. If Bergaigne was right, the poets of the RgVeda, and especial-
ly of Mandala IX, must have been engaging in make-believe. His
remark flouted all that the poets had to say in praise of the marvelous
properties of the plant and the divine inebriation that resulted from
drinking its juice. Their religion was founded on a hoax.

On the other hand the identification of Soma will give impetus to
Vedic studies. The religion of the RgVeda now assumes body, fresh
colour, a sharp bite. If I be right, the whole corpus of hymns, and
the Avesta as well, must be re-read in the light of the discovery that a
divine mushroom was at the center of these religions, was the focus
of these poets. How astonishing that we can still draw parallels with
the fly-agaric cult in Siberia, where as we shall see in Part Three it
lingers on, in the last stages of degeneration among the peripheral
tribes of the extreme north.

In Siberia the fly-agaric is utilized by the shamans. In the Indus Valley
we associate it with an organized priesthood. This priesthood may
have characterized Indo-European society in their homeland, but are
we safe in assuming so? May not a shamanistic religion have acquired
an hieratic structure under the pressures of a tough war of conquest
lasting centuries? In a world of enemies the shamans may have found
it in their own interest and the interest of the community to close
their ranks, to band together and organize a tribal priesthood, as a
weapon of political power. The assembling of the hymn book, about
which Vedic scholars know something from internal evidence, may
have kept step with the organizing of the priesthood.

I. Abel Bergaigne, U Religion Vidique, Vol. i. p. 183. The French ie« reads: Tnfin le choix que les
Aryas v^diques faisaienc d'unc plancc croissani sur Its moniagncs pour cn tircr c reuvage u
sacrifice, nc Icur avaii il pas M sugg^ri par le myihc du Soma, venu dc la montagne supreme.
IX 87^ c'c$c*^-dirc du cicl cc partieuWrement des nuages du del, 1 187’?

MISCELLANKA

Why was Sonia so soon abandoned in India, perhaps even before
the forms were closed on the canon of the RgX'eda? For one thing,
questions of supply, which must always have been awkward, became
impossible when the Indo-Aryans spread out over all ot India. The
mushroom crop in the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas was each \ear
a fixed quantity. Of course for a time the priests could make do with
insufficient fly-agarics (as they had had to do many times in seasons
of short supply), stretching out the Holy Element by utilizing the
Sicondform, and by mixing the precious fluid with ever more water
and milk until only a symbol of the Real Presence remained. Possibly
the Second form fell from favour and came under the condemnation
of the priesthood, as it seems to have done in some quarters in Iran.
The silence among later Indian writers about the true Soma would
indicate that the decision to abandon it was deliberate and universal,
and extended even to the discussion of it. But the memory of Soma
must have stayed alive in the inner circles of Brahmans, perhaps for
centuries. India is a land where the incredible sometimes comes true,
and I should be delighted, but not altogether surprised, to discover
that there are still circles privy to the knowledge of the true Soma.

As the substance of the Sacrifice became diluted and finally vanished,
as the Divine Inebriant was reduced to a fading sacerdotal memory,
inevitably more and more emphasis was placed by the priests on the
efficacy of pure liturgy, and sacerdotalism proliferated to a point that
the world has never seen equalled. The Brahmans of those days,
profoundly moved by the legacy they had received from their an-
cestors and not yet possessed of an alphabet, set up, and copper-
riveted in place, a method of preserxfing by sheer memory the words
and melody of the original hymns that would withstand the vicissi-
tudes of lime. Would it be too much to say that the psychotropic
mushrooms stirred them to make this supreme effort? With the
passing of the generations Soma, the Divine Plant, no longer a part of
Hindu experience, became sublimated in later Hindu mythology and
took its place in the heavenly firmament as the Moon God. Dr. Stie-
tencron has asked whether the Soma-Moon equivalence may not
have been suggested by several of the attributes of the fly-agaric - its

PART ONE • CHAPTER XI

successive phases as it passes from the egg stage through to its ultimate
end. all in a period comparable with the monthly qxles of the moon,
though quicker: its pock-marked face; its white flesh; its white
rotundity before it breaks through the white veil ; the crescent that
appears when the cap is bisected at a certain stage of its growth. A
people richly endowed with poetic imagination would need only
these features to see in the moon a transcendental fly-agaric.

The sublime adventure of religious contemplation, the mystical
experience, which the priestly caste (and perhaps others) of the Indo-
Aryans had known through the mediation of the fly-agaric, could now
only be achieved through regulated austerity and mortification of the
flesh, and the Hindus, who had known to the full the bliss that contem-
plation can give, made themselves the masters of these techniques:
the price being counted as nothing compared with the prize.

XII

MANI. MUSHROOM, AND URINE

Possibly we can adduce evidence that will show vestiges of the cult
of the sacred mushroom surviving in esoteric circles under Iranian
influence down to the nth century of the Christian era. The evidence
is tenuous but in the light of my fly-agaric thesis it is tantalizingly
suggestive. For the first time our trail leads us to China.

Of the sacred texts of Iran only a part survives, and much of what
survives is corrupt and confusing. A succession of religions marked the
history of ancient Iran - the primitive religion that Zoroaster under-
took to reform, Zoroastrianism. Mithraism, Manicharism, some
others, each of them preserving features of its predecessors and
changing the emphasis, but all of them laying stre.ss on the dualism of
this world, the conflict between light and dark, between good and bad.

For some years before his conversion to the Christian faith in
A. D. 386. St. Augustine was a follower of Mani, though he never
visited Iran. Immediately thereafter he wrote his attack on the Mani-
chaeans. in which there is a passage, seldotn noticed, condemning
them for eating mushrooms, as well as other delicacies.* The Latin
text reads as follows:

Quid porro insanius dici aut cogitari potest, homincm boletos,
orizam, tubera, placentas, caroenum, piper, laser, distento ventre
cum gratulatione ructantem, et quoiidie talia requirentem, non
inveniri quemadmodum a tribus signaculis, id est a regula sancti-
tatis excidisse videatur.

Writing to confound the Manichzeans, St. Augustine speaks of those
who stuff themselves every day, to gratify their appetites, with boletos
(a class of mushroom), rice (in Rome at that time an expensive

I. St. Augustine. De Moribus Manichaonim ('About the Ways of the Manichxans'). Chap. 13. Para. 30.
In imperial Rome boJetiis was the name applied to what we call the genus Amanita, including both
the edible and the toxic amanitas. Vide: Miuhwms Russia and Histaiy. Wasson & Wasson. New York,
1957, Chap, IV, Mushrooms for Murderers. So great was St. Augustine's inlluence on later church-
men that I think his mycophobic utterance may have had a part in shaping the virulent diatribes
against mushroom-eaters of St. Francois de Sales and Jeremy Taylor. Vide our MR&H. pp. 21-2. 353.

PART ONE • CHAPTER XII

luxur)-)» truffles (or perhaps underground mushrooms of the genus
known today as Terfezia, common in North Africa), fiat cakes, sweet
wine boiled until thick, pepper, and silphium (a spice, highly es-
teemed, from a plant now allegedly extinct), and he asks whether
anyone can suppose that such people do not lose their standing in
holiness.

Only an ethno-mycologist might remark, on coming across this
sentence in the great Doctor of the Church, that of the seven cates
bringing down his censure, two belong to the fungal tribe, that the
first of the seven is the Amanitas to which the fly-agaric belongs, and
that he is writing against the Manichseans, an Iranian religion founded
by Mani about a century earlier. Even an ethno-mycologist could
hardly do more than make a mental note of this; which note, however,
would spring to life on reading about the Manichaeans in China.

The Iranians introduced the religion of Mani into China in A. D. 694
and 719, and during the rest of the T’ang dynasty and down through
the Sung this Iranian sect of Manichsans played something of a role
in the religious life of the Chinese, especially in their impact on the
Taoists.* They won a victory when in A. D. 763 they gained as a
convert the Khan of the Uighurs, a powerful Mongolian people.
Much later an unfriendly Chinese official, Lu Yu (A. D. 1125-

1209), wrote two reports on the activities and practices of the devotees
of Manichxism in Fukien province. Among their evil ways he lists
their practice of eating certain mushrooms:

What they eat is always the red mushrooms, hung /i5»w

The two distinguished French sinologues who edited this text, Messrs.
Chavannes and Pelliot, could not be expected to know that it is

I. The information about the activities of the disciples of Mani in China comes from Vn Traiii
maniM^ Retrouvi en Chinf, traduit annoti pdr Ed. ChAvannes tt ?. PWliW, Paris, pp.
especially 302-5 and 310-314, including chc foomoics. This study was first published in the Jonnial
Asiaiique. Novcmbcr-Deccmber 1911. On p. 304 the French scholars, translating the passage from
St. Augustine, render boUtos by cipes, thereby falling into error. In Antiquity, as wc have said, the
Metus was an amanita and the c^e was the sulKus. the Italian porcittQ. Linnxus created the confu-
sion: when he was naming the genera and species he resorted 10 the ancient Greek and Latin words
but paid not the slightest heed to their ancient meanings.

mani. mushroom, urine

precisely in Fukien province that there grows an abundance of an
edible red mushroom, which is gathered there and widely eaten not
only in Fukien province but throughout Uhina. Chinese mycologists cal I
it Russula riihra (Kromb.) Bres.. and anyone conversant with the pro-
vince would assume that this is the mushroont of which Lu Yu speaks.
How astonishing was this charge of mycophagia. which Lu Yu hurled
against the little sect of Mani disciples. The Chinese know their mush-
rooms and consume wild species in t]uantities. It is not as though a
mycophobic Englishman had leveled the heinous accusation against,
say, a band of Gypsies. To be guilty of this offense the Manichaeans must
have been gluttons for mushrooms, and the local red mushrooms to
boot, and clearly, since he was speaking about their religion, the
practice was a part of their religion. Were not these mushrooms
another substitute for Soma, a substitute more appropriate, in that
it was red mtishrcoms, than any known to have been used in India?

The second report of Lu Yu, probably submitted in A. D. ii66, is
just as interesting.

They [the Manichxans] consider urine as a ritual water and use it

for their ablutions.

MM. Chavannes and Pellioc observe in a footnote that 'the use of
cow’s urine is known in Brahmanism and, on certain occasions, in
Mazdaism [Zoroastrianism]; but the context here hardly permits one
to think of anything except human urine, and analogies are more
rare on this point’. Lu Yu goes on to complain that as the Manichteans
eat so many Russula mushrooms, the price of mushrooms of the
Russula kind goes up. For ‘mushrooms’, he here uses the two charac-
ters ^ /i5UM, ^ cliiiu. The first Chinese character is the same as he
used before. The second one is the other standard Chinese character
for mushroom. In the second half of the sentence he repeats the
two characters but in reverse order:

As they eat fungi mushrooms, therefore mushrooms fungi grow dear.

PART ONE • CHAPTER XII

Mani was born in Iran perhaps a millennium or more after Zoroaster
and at least 1.500 years after the period when the RgVeda was being
composed in the Indus Valley. If anyone takes the attitude that, be-
cause of the lapse of time, the practices of the Manichaeans are irrele-
vant to my Soma-Haoma-fly-agaric thesis, I will not argue with him.
In a part of the world and in a period where religious practices and
beliefs showed a marked underlying stability and persistence, it seems
to me that the use in this Iranian cult of urine, apparently human
urine, and of mushrooms, red mushrooms, is more than chance. In
esoteric religious circles the ancient practices may have lived on with
modifications for many centuries.

The religion of Zoroaster still sur\'ives in the community of Parsis,
largely centered in Bombay. It is pertinent to my argument that they
still drink urine in their religious rites, though only in token amounts
and only the urine of a bull.' As I have already mentioned, throughout
the area that stretches from Iran to India cow’s urine is used as a disin-
fectant, a religious or ceremonial disinfectant, paralleling somewhat
our historical use in the West of Holy Water.

So much emphasis is laid on cows in the RgVeda and on the urine of
bulls in the religion of the Parsis that the question naturally presents
itself whether cows consume the fly-agaric and whether they are
affected by it, along with their urine and milk. I cannot answer this.
In early October 1966 with three Japanese friends, all mycologists,* I
visited Sugadaira, in Nagano prefecture, five hours west of Tokyo by
fast train. There were many birch trees scattered over the mountains,
and an abundance of fly-agarics growing at their feet. A herd of heifers
was grazing in the lush highland pasture, and we took advantage of
the opportunity to offer them some of the fly-agarics that we had in
our baskets. Two of the animals ate them from our hands avidly:
two or three turned away with indifference. We did not carry our

1. Jivanji jamshedji Modi: The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees. 1913. md ed. i937:
Bombay. Vide p. 93 (in the 2nd edition) and other references indexed under 'Gaomez . Nirang .

and 'Nirangdin'. , ,, ,, ,

2. Thc5e friends were Yoshio Kobayashi. Rokuya imazeki, and Masami Soneda, all wc l no

mycologisis. We were guests of Shlgcyoshi Iwasa at the lodge of the Meguro Hig c ^ ^ ‘
unfortunately Professor Iwasa could not join us. Wc were most hospitably cared tor by the hosts

the lodge, Mr. and Mrs. Mikiyoshi Moiai.

MANl. MUSHROOM. URiNK

experiment turther, a.s the animals were ot fine Frisian breed and the
owner was una\\ are ot our scientific activities. W'e did not ha\ e an
opportunity to catch the urine of the heifers that had eaten the fly-
agarics; besides, they would have eaten many, many more, had we
supplied them.

In 1065 and again in 1966 we tried out the fly-agarics repeatedly on
ourselves. The results were disappointing. We ate them raw, on
empty stomachs. We drank the juice, on empty stomachs. We mixed
the juice with milk, and drank the mixture, alwavs on empty
stomachs. We felt nauseated and some of us threw up. We felt
disposed to sleep, and tell into a deep slumber from which shouts
could not rouse us. lying like logs, not snoring, dead to the outside
world. When in this state I once had vivid dreams, but nothing like
what happened when 1 took the Psilocybe mushrooms in Mexico,
where I did not sleep at all. In our experiments at Sugadaira there was
one occasion that differed from the others, one that could be called
successful. Rokuya imazeki took his mushrooms with s/iiVh. the
delectable soup that the Japanese usually serve with breakfast, and he
toasted his mushroom caps on a fork before an open fire. When he
rose from the sleep that came from the mushrooms, he was in full

elation. For three hours he could not help but speak; he was a com-
pulsive speaker. The purport of his remarks was that this was nothing
like the alcoholic state; it was infinitely better, beyond all com-
parison. We did not know at the time why, on this single occasion,
our friend Imazeki was affected in this way.

In the cultural history of Eurasia has the reindeer played a part in
the attitude toward mushrooms and also toward urine, owing to
certain traits peculiar to the reindeer ? The northern forest and tundra
folk live in an intimacy with the reindeer that is hard for us to imagine,
an intimacy that amounts almost to a symbiotic relationship. Reindeer
manifest two addictions, two passions, one to urine especially human
urine, and the other to mushrooms including the fly-agaric. When
human urine or mushrooms are in the vicinity, the half-domesticated
beasts become unmanageable. All reindeer folk know of these two
addictions (how could they not know about them?), though not all

PART ONE • CHAPTER Xll

know that the mushroom addiction embraces the fly-agaric since the
flv-agaric does not always grow over the areas where reindeer abound.
Reindeer, like men. suffer (or enjoy) profound mental disturbances
after eating the flv-agaric. In Part Three and the Exhibits we shall give
the testimonv of travelers on these points. I now call attention, for the
first time in this context, to the odd traits of the reindeer because of
their possible bearing on the flv-agaric complex in the religious life of
the Siberian peoples. In the give and take of the human species and
the reindeer mav not the human race have learned from the rein-
deer to esteem urine and the inebriating qualities of the fly-agaric
also, and finally the combination of the two? It has been said that in
\'edic times -C(i. B. C. 1500-1000- reindeer had not been domesticated.
How conclusive is the evidence for this in northern Siberia? It is
thought that the ancestors of the Aryans did not live in the reindeer
latitudes. There is linguistic evidence that may show the Indo-Euro-
peans discovered the virtues of the fly-agaric before the Siberian tribes,
and we are beginning to perceive the extent of the trade relations
that always existed across those vast land expanses of Siberia. In that
heyday of the fly-agaric cult may the Indo-Europeans have mastered
techniques that encouraged cows to eat the resplendent heavenly
mushroom? All these questions are speculative and at present un-
answerable.

XllI

THE MAR\'HLOUS HERB

In the Shiihnameh of Firdousi there is an episode that bears on our
quest for the genuine Soma. The Shahnanich (‘Book ot Kings ) is
the great Persian epic ot 60,000 rimed couplets, a repository ot all
Iranian history and all national legends known to the poet. Firdousi
completed his prodigious work just after A. D. 1000. and the episode
that interests us is attributed to the 6th century, at the court of the
outstanding Sassanid king Khosru I, called .Anushirvan ('the Blessed’),
who reigned from A. D. 531 to 579. Whether the episode as recounted
by Firdousi took place as told or whether he merely passes on an
embroidered version ot what had become a legend is immaterial: its
terms are what interest us,' whether true or false. Herds my summary
of the passage pertinent to our inquiry. It will be apparent later why
I have put a sentence in italic.

.At the court of King Khosru there was an outstanding physician,
one Bursoe, an elderly nun who loved to talk and who was reputed
to be versed in every branch of knowledge. One day he presented
himself before the King at the hour of audience and said: ‘O King,
friend of learning, you who explore science and who keep it in
memory, today I have perused in a serene spirit an Indian book. It is
said therein that on a mountain in India there grows a plant brilliant
as Byzantine satin. If a skillful man gathers it and mi.xes it cannily.
and if t/ien /le spreads it on a dead man, the dead man recovers the power
of speech without fail and forthwith. If the King permits. I am going to
undertake this difficult quest. I shall make use of all that I know to
guide me and I hope to accomplish this marvel. It would be only
just that the dead return to life, since the world has for king the
Blessed One.' Whereupon the King replied: ‘It is not likely that this
will be. but perhaps we must try.’

The King added that as Bursoe would probably need a guide he
should go amply supplied with gifts for the Indian Rajah. [Later in
the story the Rajah is identified as having his capital at Kanauj. the

i. Firdousi: verses 3^31-3568; 1 have relied on ihe French iranslation of Jules Mohl.

PART ONE • CHAPTER XIII

meager ruins of which still exist in Uttar Pradesh, fifty miles from
Kanpur, on the Ganges far south of the Himalayas.]

Bursoe set out on his journey and arrived in the presence of the
Rajah, who welcomed him and read the letter delivered to him.

He assured Bursoe that all the Brahmans living in the mountains
would help him. Bursoe went everywhere in the mountains on foot,
and he chose herbs dry and fresh, faded and others in their full glory.
After crushing them he spread them over corpses, 'but those herbs
did not bring back a single one to life.’

The rest of the tale, which recounts how Bursoe extricated himself
as well as he could from his embarrassing predicament, does not
concern us.

It is noteworthy (i) that the book that Bursoe had read was Indian;
(2) that according to the Indian book the herb shimmered like satin
of Byzantium; (3) that in India Bursoe had recourse to the mountains;
and (4) that he was promised Brahmans living in the mountains for
his guides. The herb grew in the mountains of India -no other place
is mentioned. Bursoe had been reading an Indian book - we are not
told what one nor when it was written. In the episode do we not hear
a clear though fading echo of the Soma of the RgVeda, of the marvel-
ous herb that grew high in the mountains and for which the Brahmans
alone held the key?

In Indian literature the Puranas contain legends and tales of the olden
days, all of them religious and in verse. The different Puranas took
their present shape at different times, running from perhaps the 4th
to the i6th centuries.

A story is told in several of the Puranas that may bear on the
Bursoe episode in the Shahnameh. The version that I shall give is from
the Padma Purdna, Part 2, Book 6. Chapter 8, verses 40-63. Scholars
tell us that it assumed its present form between A. D. 800 to 1000. A
certain Mount Drona figures in it: 'drona (from dm, Sanskrit, ma e
of wood’) is the word commonly used in the RgVeda for the woodmen
vessels that contain Soma. Here the word has been transferred to t at

THE MARVELOUS HERB

other receptacle for Soma, the mountain out ot which the marvelous
herb grew.

Jalandhara was the king of the demons and he was waging war
against the gods. The spiritual preceptor of the demons, their guru,
was named Sukra; he had a magic incantation that he had received
from Siva by means of which he revived all the demons as they tell
in battle. \'isnu. who was leading the army of the gods, said to
Brhaspati, who was the guru of the gods. ‘Sukra has revived all the
demons. W’hv do you not revive the gods?' Brhaspati said, 'I will
revive the gods with herbs.’ Then Brhaspati went to the great Drona
Mountain beside the ocean of milk, and he took the herbs that grew
there and by means of yoga he revived the gods. Seeing this. Jalan-
dhara said to Sukra, ‘How can the gods be revived without your
magic?’ Sukra said, 'There is a moiinMin ndmed Droui hesuie the ocean
of milk, atiii herbs grew there that revive the liead. The guru of the gods
MCiit t/iere ijiiil loef' l/ie /icri's and revivejl t/ie gods who had fallen in
Kittle.' Hearing this. Jalandhara went to the ocean of milk and he
went to the mountain Drona and beat it with his fists until Drona
said, T am your slave; protect me.’ Jalandhara then commanded the
mountain to go down to the nether world below the earth, and
Drona went there; as he went, all the herbs cried out. Then Jalandha-
ra returned to the battlefield and fought with \’isnu and conquered
him. - Tnnis/iifeil by \\VH*ly Doniger 0‘Flaherty.

In the Sanskrit text the word for herb is osadhi, one of the terms
often used for. Soma in the RgVeda. In Sanskrit there was a poetic
convention that precious herbs (05<id/ii) grew on the Himalayas. They
were brilliant and shone like lamps at night. There are hundreds of
such references, of which perhaps the most famous is Kalidasa’s
KitMidrrtStunl'luiva t to;

Where the magic herbs (osadlii) cast their glow into the caves of
mountaineers who lie there with their mistresses, lamps of the
love-chamber that need no oil.*

1 . 1 am mJebieJ lo Professor Daniel H. H. Ingalls for this reference. He also supplied me with a
Sanskrit proverb, which may go back to a Prakrit original: ‘On the sno«7 mountains grows the
mape herb, but the snake is on your head.’ (Snowy mountains = Himalayas) Vide translation by
D. H. H. Ingalls: . 4 n .tnthoJogy cf Sanskrit Court pMry. Harvard Oriental Scries 44. verse 791 ; also
td^m p. 522 for furiher references lo the proverb.

PART ONE • CHAPTER XIII

An Chinese know the ling chih J a conception that goes back in
Chinese cultural history for thousands of years; just how far back is
the question at issue here.

The ling chih is a symbol of happy augur)% bespeaking good fortune,
good health, longevity, even life with the immortals. Conventionally
the phrase is translated by ‘the divine fungus -or mushroom -of
immortality’. The ‘marvelous herb’ would be a simpler rendering,
or again the ‘herb of spiritual potency’. It is one of that large family
of Chinese expressions drawn from nature - animals, plants, moun-
tains, clouds, etc. - which seem to have constituted in a sense the
furniture of ever)^ Chinese mind. The Chinese would distill from the
chosen objects a conventional meaning, and thereafter the objects
were used in literature and art to convey this meaning, like pic-
tographs. At an early date the Taoists captured the concept of a
divine mushroom of immortality, and they exploited it fantastically
in their writings in the first millennium of our era and even later,
until the original idea was lost in a welter of imaginary divagations.
Beginning with the Yiian Dynasty (A. D. 1280-1368) the ling c/u 7 i has
been endlessly represented in art - in paintings, carvings in jade and
deer’s antlers, furniture and carpet designs, balustrades, jewelry,
lady’s combs, perfume bottles, in short wherever the artistic urge
found an outlet. It has become a cliche in newspapers, novels, con-
versation. For two thousand years the idea of the ling chih has passed
through various phases in the cultural history of China, and I hope
someday to publish my notes on these, looking to the time when
enough will be known for someone to write the biography of the
miraculous fungal idea.

Up to now students of Chinese culture have always regarded the
ling chih as indigenous to China.' I shall suggest that it came from India

I. Vide. t. g.. Michael Sullivan: The Birih of Landscape Painting in China. University of alifomia Prw
San Francisco and Los Angeles, 1962. p. 52. Sullivan’s discussion of the ling chih (vide references m his
index) is the best that has appeared in recent times. Also. Marcel Granct. Ld Pensie C inoise, ans,
1934, 'L'art de la longue vic\ pp. 507

THI-: MAR\ KLOUS HKRB

and was a literary’ ronection of Soma, the miraculous mushroom oi
the Ri;\eda. Certainly the fungal idea, once it reached (..hina, tound
there fertile soil; an 'elixir of immortality has hemused many peoples,
such as the West Europeans in the i6th century, but the Chinese seem
to have been singularlv susceptible to this will-o -the-wisp, always
hoping to come upon a plant or mineral or juice that would prolong
virility and longevity. The novelty of the ling cliilt is precisely that it
was a ntushroom. and this is India’s contribution to our story.

.■\lfred Salmonv in his .Aiu/er aiui Tongue' has called attention to the
accumulating evidence of the influence of India on the China ot the
Late Eastern Chou, from the -ih to the 3rd centuries B. C. He has
pointed out that the influence could be solely ‘literary’, i.e.. whereby
the Chinese ‘heard tell’ of practices elsewhere and under the stimulus
of such reports sought to duplicate them. This is what Joseph
Needham calls ‘stimulus dilYusion’.* what I would call ‘idea dilTusion’.
Salmony cites a number of examples and supplies the bibliographical
references. To this list I now pioposc to add the /iMg chili.

First a word as to the vocabulary tor the divine, the miraculous,
mushroom. This assumed such importance in Chinese culture that
alternative expressions evolved. It is often called the ‘miraculous
c/n'/i’. or'auspicious herb’, With Chinese culture the idea

spread to Korea and Japan, where however it has tended to be con-

fined to the literate and intellectual classes. Ling c/n/i in Japan, written
with the same Chinese characters, becomes rei.dti, the I yielding to r in
the customary way. But more widely used than reishi today is fniui-
uenttdv 'ten-thousand-year mushroom’. Scholars say that in

the archaic stage of Chinese culture the character for chili ^ was
written a pictograph of ‘herb’, a small plant that was not woody.
In Japanese this meaning is still current: where c/ii/i ^ appears
in contexts other than ling c/ii/i. it is pronounced and means
‘lawn’. Presumably it meant this in spoken Chinese in the early T’ang
Dynasty (A. D. 618-906), when the Japanese probably borrowed the

1. .•Ufred Salmony; ‘Antler and Tongue, an essay on ancient Chinese s)mbolism and its implica
lions*, Arftbui Asia, Ascona, SwiizerUnd, 1954. pp. 51-51.

2. Joseph Needham: Science dn.J Cmfic«ion in China. Cambridge University Press \’ol i io6i
pp. 144-143.

PART ONE • CHAPTER XIII

word. But in the specific sense of 'mushroom’ it had already had a
long history in China. In the Li Chi, one of the 'Thirteen Classics' of
China, c/ii/i ^ is listed as a ritual food of the emperor, thus figuring
in the religious ceremonies that were an important part of his func-
tions.' The early commentators gloss this as meaning an edible
mushroom growing on trees, probably what is known in recent
centuries as the tree-ear, »m erh familiar throughout the

temperate zone to those versed in mushroom lore as the oyster
mushroom, P/eiirotus ostreatus (Fr.) Quel. The Li Chi comes down to
us in a recension dating from the early Han (the two centuries before
Christ), but the contents are supposed to have been assembled in the
late Chou period, from the -th to the 3rd centuries B. C.

Though c/n 7 i in the sense of ‘mushroom’ seems already to have
been familiar, the idea of ling chih, a supernatural mushroom with
miraculous powers, appears first in the Ch’in Dynasty (B. C. 221-207)
under the great Emperor Shih-huang. who assumed the title of the
‘First Emperor’, by which he has always been known, for it was he
who unified all China for the first time and who built the Chinese
Wall to keep the barbarians out. Until his reign we find not a single
word about the marvelous plant: no mention in the Classics, in the
inscriptions on the bronze vessels, on the oracle bones. There are no
callings in jade or deer’s antlers, no representations in pottety or
jewelry, on halberds or belt buckles. If the conception had existed, we
must assume an implausible conspirac)- of silence in this singularly
articulate people concerning an idea that prompts thousands of
tongues to wag.

Then, suddenly, there is a burst of talk about the wonder fungus,
but only talk. People busy themselves looking for it, especially in the
mountains, but no one finds it. The great historian Ssu-ma Chien
(B. C. 145- ’87) is the source of most of our reliable information on
this. There are many passages in his account of Shih-huang s reign
telling of talks between the Emperor and his necromancers: a magi-
cal herb (‘c/uTi’) existed, but where was it? Evetyone was searching
but it was nowhere to be found. Matters reached a point where the

I. U Chi, Chap. 12.

Pi-ATi; XIV .mJ Plate xv • T\vin-le.ifed Ling Chih from above and from below.

(Ctfflecfion R. G. U’d.wH)

*•*

4»«l

«•»«!

»«!

THE MARVELOUS HERB

Emperor was advised to go into the mountains alone, and in disguise,
obscurely, on tip-toe, and perhaps he might surprise it! We your
humble servants are trying to find dii/i. It is one of the miraculous
medicines that even the gods cannot come upon easily.’ This is the
manner in which the Emperor is addressed by Lu-sheng. one of the
sages who was giving advice.' The Emperor has been told of a marvel-
ous plant and, asking his necromancers to find it, gets only evasi\e
answers. They believe (or pretend to believe) the reports of its pro-
perties, but have no idea what to look for. Addressing the ‘master of
humanity’, who clearly believed the reports, they do not dare confess

their ignorance by telling the truth.

Or again we read that Shih-huang sends vessels into the Eastern
Sea to seek the mysterious fungus on islands off the coast and far
away.* One sage (or necromancer, or shaman), Hsii Fu, seems to have
rallied hundreds of youths of both sexes to embark w’ith him and to
have sailed away to the Southeast. The reports of this voyage are
numerous. According to one account, they never returned, but Ssu-ma
Ch’ien tells us that Hsu Fu came back and reported falsely about as
follows; ‘Your humble servants sailed east and southward and reached
P’eng-lai [allegedly one of the three godly islands in the Seas]. There
your humble servants saw palaces made of c/ii/i. There were servants,
copper in colour and dragon in appearance. The palaces were so
bright that they lit up the heavens.’’

I take it that the reports of Soma had reached the Emperor by the
sea route; hence the voyages to establish contact with the source of
information. I take it that the reports placed Soma high in the moun-
tains; hence the futile excursions into the mountains to find the plant.
The first reports about Soma probably reached China in the reign of

1. From Ssu«nia Ch*icn: chi biography of Shih-huang.

2 . The proponents of early deliberate tran$*Pacific contacts with America must face these texts in

considering the stage of development in navigation that the Orientals had reached as late as the
Chin Dynasty. Contacts by sea between India and China involved only plane sailing, but the dif*
ficulties were staggering for the people of those times. The Japanese had hardly established contacts
with China via Korea, much less the islands of the Pacific. As late as the middle of the first millcn*
nium A. D. voyages from Kyushu to Shantung were formidable adventures, exceedingly perilous.
3.0p.df.,Vol.n8,'The Biographies of Princes Huai-nan and HSng*shan* quotation

from the biography of Prince Huat-nan, a grandson of the first Han emperor.

PART ONE • CHAPTER XIII

Shih-huang-ti, but possibly they came a few decades earlier, Shih
Huang being the first to pursue the matter. In any case in China the
conception of the miraculous c/ii/i probably does not antedate the 3rd
century B.C.

Ssu-ma Ch’ien, the father of Chinese history, lived in the reign of the
early Han Emperor Wu (B.C. 157-87), about a century after Shih-
huang. Contemporar)’ with Ssu-ma Ch’ien there was a famous
gentleman-in-waiting at court by name Tung-fang Shuo a

man renowned for his ready wit. In the Taoist canon there survives
a work attributed to him, the S/ii/j c/ioit chi ^ ‘Notes on Ten

Continents’, that gives another account of the voyage of Hsii Fu.
Scholars say that the attribution to Tung-fang Shuo is certainly spuri-
ous, and that the S/ii/i c/iou chi could not have been written before the
4th or 5th centuries and probably several centuries later. In short it is
a product of the second half of the first millennium, therefore con-
temporaneous sensit lato with Bursoe’s journey and with the Padma
Puratm from which we have already quoted. In the following excerpt
taken from the S/ii/i c/icit c/n' we have underlined phrases that will
strike a familiar chord:

The isle of Tsu is situated close by, in the Eastern Sea. There grows
a never-dying plant, shaped like water-grass, with blades three to
four cli’i/i [feet] in length. A man wlio has been dead three days revives
immediately w/ien diis plant is laid on lti»i. When it is eaten it prolongs
life. In the time of Shih-huang-ti of the Ch'in dynasty, when mur-
dered people lay broadcast in the ‘great preserve and across the
roads, birds resembling crows or ravens appeared with this plant in their
bills, and placed it on the faces of those corpses, with the effect that they sat
up immediately, and revived. The officers reported this to the Emperor.
On this Shih-huang-ti sent out an envoy with a sample of this plant
[ ^ ts’tit*] : and he interrogated the doctor of the Spectre Valley, who
lived near the north wall. 'This herb [ts'^ie]’. thus spoke the sage, 'is
the herb of immortality of the Tsu island in the Eastern Ocean,

The Chine,, ol .hi, epi,ode i, given by J. J. M. de Gmo.: Tk, ™

Uiden, Vol. iv, pp. 307-8. I have followed de Groot s iranslaiion except mac p
on the advice of my Chinese friends I have emended 11.

THE MAR\'ELOUS HERB

where it grows in a red marble field. Some call it c/ii/« which
feeds the slien [spirit]. Its leaves grow luxuriantly, and one stalk
suffices to give life to a man.’ On these words Shih-huang-ti with
enthusiasm spoke: ‘Can it be fetched from there?’ And he sent an
envoy to the island, one Hsii Fu, with five hundred young people of
both sexes, in command of a ship with decks. They put to sea to seek
the island but they never came back.

Here then we have three tales that intermesh in an odd manner.
The Iranian version conveys a clear echo of the Soma of the RgVeda.
There has been added to the marvelous herb one fabulous property:
it revives the dead. In the Indian tale an herb with the identical mi-
raculous virtue grows on Mount Drona, the name of this mountain
echoing the word in the RgX’eda that designates the receptacle for the
juice of Soma. In the late Chinese revision of the Hsu Fu tale the same
fabulous virtue is attributed to an herb: it makes the dead to rise. This
tale is a variant of one told by Ssu-ma Ch’ien perhaps six or seven
hundred years earlier about the First Emperor, Shih-huang, and a
fungus or mushroom with miraailous properties. Here is an example of
idea diffusion, and the idea, I believe, had its source in the Soma of
the RgVeda. The marx^elous fungus of the Chinese, first appearing
in the reign of Shih Huang-ti, must today be viewed in the light of
Sino-Indian contacts and the evidence that Soma was a mushroom.

The next chapter in the history of the ling c/n/i takes place in B. C.
109, a century after the time of the Emperor Shih-huang. The Han
Dynasty (B. C. 206 - A. D. 220) now rules China and Wu-ti occupies
the throne. The sources for our information about the episode that I
am going to relate are the same Ssu-ma Ch’ien whom we have already
quoted and who was contemporary with the later event, and Pan Ku
(A. D. 32-92), the chronicler of the Han Dynasty and also a reliable
historian. In the imperial Kan-ch’iian palace building operations had
been under way in the first half of the year. Then, in late summer
(probably August), in an inner pavilion of the palace, there appeared
a fungal plant, a marvelous growth with nine paired ‘leaves’. The
Emperor Wu made the most of the event. He identified the plant

PART ONE • CHAPTER XIII

with the famous chili that Shih-huang and his necromancers could
not locate. He issued an edict and exclaimed that even the inner
chambers of the palace were not discriminated against. He proclaimed
an amnesty of prisoners, served beef and wine to a hundred families,
and composed an ode for the occasion, the earliest poem about a
mushroom (but far from the last and far from the best) that comes
down to us in Chinese history. Pan Ku has preser\'ed it for us:

My secluded dwelling produces an herb.

Nine stems with twin leaves !

The palace pages busy themselves with
this miracle;

They lay out pictures and consult
records!

The essence of the Mysterious Breath,

There it is, returned again to this
residence,

Day after day this superb growth,

This c/iih, which unfolds its beauties
most marvelously!

Under the Emperor Wu taxes were levied harshly to meet his needs
and grumbling was widespread. He was hardly popular and perhaps
he seized on the unusual appearance of a fungal growth inside the
palace chambers as a public relations ploy, bestowing on this plant
the name chili to turn in his favor its good name and prestige. The
episode is known to this day by every'one familiar with Chinese
history, somewhat like the vase of Clovis in French history and King
Alfred and the pancakes in English history. The ode is No. 13 in the
nineteen ritual odes that were sung to music on the seasonal occasions
of the Chinese year.

At last the unidentified clii/i of Shih-huang-ti had found an identity,
an identity that it has retained to this day. Naturally this fungus had
nothing to do with its Indian precursor, which Shih-huang had never

THE MARVELOUS HERB

succeeded in locating in the mountains of China. I think it is safe to
assume that the plant found growing in the imperial palace in B. C.
109 was /iicidum (Leyss.) Karst., the same species that has

been represented in Oriental art -Chinese. Japanese. Korean - time

Fig. I. Gdnodtrma Normal and abnormal shapes.

without number in recent centuries. The definitive scientific identi-
fication of the fungus pictured in Chinese paintings since the Yuan
Dynasty was made by two Japanese mycologists, by Iwao Hino in May
1937 and by Rokuya Imazeki in 1934 and 1939.'

I. Rokuya Imazeki: NuimmI Sdaue and Museums. 1934. No. 61, pp. n-15. ‘Good Omen Plant. Man-
nmufce : also BHlletin a/iJie Teir>‘« Sri«ice Mtueum, March 1939, No. i, ‘Studies on Ganoderma of Nip-
pon'. I wao Hino (Miyazaki): Botany and Zoology. May 1937. Vol. 5. No. 5. 'Roshi and GanoJenna Juridum
that grow in Europe and America: their Differences’. (All arc in Japanese, with English summary.)

PART ONE • CHAPTER Xlll

Giiuoderma lucuitim is a woody fungus, therefore inedible, that grows
widely in the temperate zone. We see it in Europe and America,
but we have never made anything of it. In appearance it can be of
stunning beauty, with its rich lacquer-like finish, the concentric lines
ot its strange pileus, its odd stem. Those unversed in these matters
often refuse to believe that the high polish of this mushroom has not
been artificially applied. But its peculiar virtue is that it is protean.
There is the normal form, and there is the endless variety of other
shapes and consistencies that it assumes when it grows under abnormal
conditions, as for example in the dark. The cap (or ‘pileus’) is always
attached to the stem (or ‘stipe’) eccentrically, and it can give rise to the
‘paired leaves’ of Wu-ti, as we show in Plates xiv and xv. {Vide supra,
poem by Wu-ti. In classic Chinese the pileus of a mushroom w'as a
‘leaf’ and in Japanese this use of ‘leaf’ has sur\’ived down to our own
day. The Chinese character is in Chinese reading yeh, Japanese
ha.) We know that there had been building operations going for-
ward in the Imperial Palace earlier in the year. This is precisely
the condition that might produce an abnormal chih inside the new
structure: the wood was not seasoned and the grow’th made its
appearance in the obscurity’ of the secluded chambers. The nine
‘double-leaves’ would be a rare curiosity, but it is certainly not at all
unbelievable.

Pan Ku. the chronicler of the Han Emperors, composed a second
ode to the ling chili, more than a century after the Emperor Wu s. The
attentive reader will have noted that until now w’e have never quoted
an ancient source for the name ling chih. Ever)’one has used either
c/ii/i alone, or Is’ao c/n/i ‘plant chih’, or chih ts ao chih

plant’. In the last line of the Emperor Wu’s poem, the first character
is c/iili ^ , the next to the last is ling Ling has a long and compli-
cated histor)' in Chinese. To start with, it is made up by the combi-
nation of three characters - fifg, ‘rain’; (three mouths) pra)ingfor ,
and ‘shaman’. Combined in a single character, they mean spiritual
potency, a stirring of the soul. Pan Ku in his ode joined ling and c/n7i.
the two concepts that the Emperor Wu had associated together in

Plate xvi . NOIN ULA TEXTILE (/tere 5/wu-?i in two parts), isx century

A. D. From Mongolian tomb. Contemporary connoisseurs of Chinese arc

suggest

that the enigmatic plant tosvard which the birds arc leaning is Ling Chih, the
fjbulous Fungus of Immortalicy. (Coiirl«y of the Hermitage Museum. Uningrad)

• ■ '. **

-*. ■? : l .> •;

K' l^

^^pii ft. •

B'l

PArM

' ‘V

♦

THE MARVELOUS HERB

the same verse, thus minting the phrase that ever since has been m
common currency. Here is Pan Ku's ode:

ling chih grows with the settling
dew,

The sign of the three virtues, happy
omen's picture fulfilled.

It prolongs lives and glorifies the
capital.

It accompanies the Emperor on high,
Image of the Sky!

Image of the sun and the moon, it
throws out bursts of light!

The three Virtues of the Universe are the Heavens, the Earth, and
Man. The pictures of happy omens were mythical documents from
heaven depicting auspicious marvels such as the unicorn, the phoenix,
the dragon, and the ling ciii/i. Was not Pan Ku's ode intended to be
used as an alternative to Wu-ti’s in the liturgical year?

Lately the art historians have provided us with an unexpected
development in the history of ling c/n 7 i. A Russian archaeological
expedition in 1924-5 unearthed some remarkable artefacts in tombs
at Noin Ula in what is now Mongolia. They date from the first century
A. D., perhaps the early part of the century. Among the finds was a
silk textile, reproduced in our Plates xvi and xvii.' A single motif is
repeated several times. It consists of two rocky crags, a bird perched
on each of the crags leaning down and outward, a graceful tree between
the crags, and outside the crags, a plant with nine stalks terminating
in what Michael Sullivan calls a ‘poached-egg’ design. The birds are so

I. The first and best dcKription in English of the Noin Ula finds as a whole was that of W. Perceval
Yetu: Discoveries of the Kozlov Expedition’, Burlingnm Magd^'ne, April 1926. pp. t66-i76. The
textile that interests us was discussed at some length by Michael Sullivan: The Birth of Undscape
Painting in Cfiiruj, pp. 52-53 and PI. 35; other references to ling cluh in his index, with numerous
reproductions of bos reliefs representing the fungus. William Willetts: Chinese Art. London and New
York. 1958. also accepts the identification, pp. 290-29Z. The Noin Ula textile hangs in the Hermitage
Museum, Leningrad, where the Museum authorities graciously photographed it for me.

PART ONE • CHAPTER Xlll

placed that they are about to reach the ‘poached eggs’. Perceval Yetts
in his description of this textile refers to the plant as a ‘clumsv fungoid
form’. Sullivan has identified it with iiiig c/n7i. Sullivan sees no parallel

Fig. 2. From SafcifcusJ-ko (‘An Inquiry into the Happy Herb ), by Suigetsu Kan-o^
An essay published in 1850 in Japan. The inspiration for this representation of
Gancde^ma luci.ium stems back almost 2.000 years to the specimen that the
Emperor Wu of China discovered growing in the inner pavilion of his palace.

for the treatment of the rocky crags in either Han China or the Near
East and he suggests a derivation from India, the wall painting m
Cave X at Ajanta dating from the first century B.C. showing a similar
silhouette. Here is independent support for my thesis of an Indian

origin for the ling c/tili notion.

L-*/-

v/r'l

tcil

k:?*'

V ,'

•2L'>

^si3

'»ta

s PwC

••V-f'

ri:^

«'. .- .V

r • . j *:

Plate xviii • Rubbing of a Han Dynasty Stone Carving. Found in Szechwan
Province. The two hags with pendulous breasts, having wings on their arms,
are assumed to be Immortals. They are playing the board game, popular at
that time, known as li«-po. Behind the figure on the right there is what Chinese
art critics today interpret as a Han Dynasty conception of the Ling Chih, the
fabled ‘Marvelous Herb’ or ’Divine Fungus of Immortality'.

(Courtesy of Rolf Stein, Esq.)

:^r*

^>11

•kM

.r- •

♦^fl

Ilf'

'IV

- V

»j*r-

K'a/

0 ^

'/ *. »«

.#* '

> <

i» 1

»>• 1

1 *

•*«

- * '

•>

'n\

'•• •.

%«>

/I?nvV>

4^.

» #

f 1

kh-

'/i

4 «.

(>. ^,. x.x . M..id <.f H<m<.ur attcndmg .he Hcuenly Emperor. In her

kf. hand .he carries a vase ss ..h L.nc Cm... .n tss (. of its shapes, .he normal one
and .he one .ha. suggests deer’s antlers or coral branches. I aintc c. . •

THE MARVELOUS HERB

I suggest that the fungal form was the artist’s effort to embody the
Emperor Wu’s c/u7i with nine twin-leaves, his knowledge of it being
only literary. (The textile, dating from the later Han, came more than
a century after the event in Wu-ti's reign.) And if India inspired the
crags, perhaps the birds reaching down to the fungoid forms re-enact
the familiar Indian legend of the rape of Soma by a falcon from a
celestial mountain top.' Since the Noin Ula finds art historians have
assembled a number of ks reliefs representing the same convention-
alized motif, the ‘poached eggs’, and the stalks or stems that support
them. In Plate xviii we show one of these, also having nine stems

or stipes.

If I am right, we see the genesis of the ling chili in the reign of Shih
Huang-ti, when on the strength of verbal reports from India about a
miraculous mushroom he sent his necromancers looking for it here
there and everywhere in the mountains. We see Wu-ti fixing the
identity of this elusive mushroom on Gunodertna lucidum thanks to
its fortuitous appearance in an inner chamber of his palace - a change-
ling that he was successful in foisting on the Chinese people. We see
artists in the later Han, obviously unfamiliar xvith the fungus itself,
depicting from verbal reports a fungus every whit as fabulous as the
phoenix, the dragon, and the unicorn.

If I failed to make good my case for the fly-agaric as Soma, the argu-
ment in this chapter has no base. If Soma was the fly-agaric, then I
submit the probabilities favour Soma as the inspiration for the Chinese
idea of a divine mushroom of immortality. That the idea lived on in
Iran and India well into the first millennium of our era is certain:
Firdousi, the Mahdbhdrata, the Puranas, Kalidasa and the other poets -
all testify to that. In these centuries the Chinese picked up the idea
but only by hearsay. It will not have escaped the perceptive reader
that when Wu-ti joined in a single verse the hug and the c/n7i, and
thus took a vital step in fathering on a certain fungus the vibrant

I. The birds in ihc textile are probably the demoiselle crane, whose distribution extends from
China to Spain. This was the guess of Roger Tory Peterson when we visited him in his home in
Old Lyme, Conn., at Christmastide 1966. The legs are those of a wader. The black wing feathen
and crest complete the identification. But of course the artist may not have considered the species
of bird important, so long as it was big and spectacular.

PART ONE • CHAPTER XIII

name of the Marvelous Herb, he chose one that, in addition to other
remarkable properties, was deep red in colour and that shimmered like
a satin of By^ance. The strange convolutions of its pileus suggested to
the Chinese mind the cumulus where the Immortals dwell, and thus
in the course of time there came about an artistic convention by
which, in the Yiian Dynasty and later, the painters made the clouds of
the Celestial plane and the Herb of Immortality resemble each other
to a point where, in extreme cases, it is hard to tell them apart.

We have advanced one step toward a United Field throughout Eu-
rasia for a religious origin underlying the supernatural folklore that
centres on an hallucinogenic mushroom. In Part Three we will carry
this argument into northern Eurasia. But meanwhile we invite our
readers to divert their attention to Dr. O’ Flaherty’s account of the
post-Vedic history of the Soma question. The lesson that one must
draw from her narrative about the futility of much scholarship is
humbling.

Plate xx • Chinese Sage Contemplating Ling Chih.

Painted by Chen Hung-shou (1559-1652). (Courlesy of Wango VVeng. Esq.)

*•*

4»«l

«•»«!

»«!

PART TWO

THE POST-VEDIC HISTORY OF THE SOMA PLANT

by Wendy Douiger O’Fhherty

*•*

4»«l

«•»«!

»«!

T he history of the search for Soma is, properly, the history ot

\ eclic studies in general, as the Soma sacrifice was the local point

of the \'edic religion. Indeed, if one accepts the point ot view
that the whole of Indian mystical practice from the L'pimis.i.ls through
the more mechanical methods of yoga is merely an attempt to re-
capture the vision granted by the Soma plant, then the nature ot that
vision - and of that plant - underlies the whole ot Indian religion, and
everything of a mystical nature within that religion is pertinent to the
identity of the plant.

In place of such an all-inclusive study, the present essay attempts to
summarize what has been written since \ edic times about the physical
nature of the Soma plant and the substitutes for Soma. I have worked
in the Bodleian Library and the Indian Institute at Oxford, the India
Office in London, and the British Museum, and of necessity I have
omitted the contributions of Indian scholars whose works are not
available in those collections. Furthermore, I have dealt summarily
with the Haoma of the Avesta, since the work done on the botanical
identification of Haoma has been subsumed for the most part under
the study of Soma.

I. THE BR.AHM.-INMS AND THE SR.ALTA-SC'TRAS

After the era of the Vedas there came a period when the centre of
intellectual activity moved from the valley of the Indus to the upper
Ganges and the Yamuna. A spate of works, the direct outgrowth of
the Vedas and preserving ancient traditions, many of them lengthy,
arose as a kind of corpus of ritual textbooks. These are the Brulnntiiuis.
prose works dating from about 800 B.C.

Surd is generally believed to have been an alcoholic drink of some
sort - wine or rice wine or fermented liquor or beer or even distilled
spirits' - or else to refer to alcoholic drinks in general. The Brd/iiiiuiifls
say clearly that Soma was not siini. The ^atapatlia Bnlhimimi declares:
‘Soma is truth, prosperity, light; and siira untruth, misery, darkness.’*

I. Monicr-Williams* dictionary gives 'distilled liquor as a primary meaning of swrj, but evidence is
strong that the distilling process was not known in India until a much later era.

^diaparlia firdijmanj, Chowkhamba edition. 5.1.1.10.

PART TWO • CHAPTER I

The Taittiriyn Brdhmana says, 'Soma is male and surd is female; the
two make a pair.’’ The sharp distinction made by the text seems to
rule out the possibility that Soma was simply another kind of alcoholic
drink, and it would seem probable that surd embraced all the ferment-
ed drinks that rated mention in the RgVeda.

The Brii/imanas are much preoccupied with the question of substi-
tutes for Soma. They are books of ritual composed for the sacerdotal
caste, and in places they seem to be deliberately obscure. If the priests
knew what Soma was, they never stated it clearly, and their references
to the Soma plant are ultimately of little help in establishing its
botanical identity. It may be assumed that Soma was none of the
plants expressly suggested as substitutes for it, though of course it may
have resembled any of them in some particular and probably did so.
But it is difficult to draw any sure conception from these negative
hints, for the substitutes often bear little resemblance to each other,
including as they do grasses, flowers, creepers, and even trees.

The ^atapatha Brdhmana sets forth an order in which substitutes
should be used. First comes the reddish-brown {arund) phdlguna plant,
which may be used because it is similar to Soma {somasya nyaiiga), but
the bright red (lo/iita) phdlgiina plant must not be used. If phdlgiina is
unavailable, then the syenahrta plant may serve, for there is a tradition
that Soma was once carried away by a falcon, and a stalk (amisu)
fell from the sky and became the syenahrta plant. The third choice is
the addra plant, which sprang from the liquor that flowed from the
sacrificial animal when it was decapitated. Fourth comes the brown
ddrvd grass, which is similar to Soma, and last choice is yellow
kiik grass. This being least satisfactory, a cow must be given in
atonement.*

The Tdndya Brdhmana says that the putika is the plant which grew
from a leaf (or feather, partid) that fell when Soma was carried through
the air, and that it is therefore a suitable substitute.’ In his com-
mentary on this work, Sayana says, 'If they cannot obtain the Soma

I. Taiitinya Brahmana, Anand3§rama edition, t.yyi.
z.^atapatha Brdhmana, 4.5.10.2-6,

3. Tdndya Brdhmana, Bibliotheca Indica edition,

the ‘BRAHMANAS’ and the ‘SRAUTA-SUTRAS’

whose characteristics arc described i[i the sacred text, then they ma)
use the species of creeper (hitd) which is known as pnlif'ii, if thej
cannot find piitifcd, then they may use the dark grass (sytiinii/tini
triKhii) known as arjiimini.'^ Yet another cetiological myth is used to
explain the substitution of the fruit of the nyugrod/iu (sacred fig or
banyan tree): the gods once tilted over their Soma cups, and the
nyrtgrodlni tree grew from the spilt drops.* Elsewhere it is said that
even when Soma is available, one should use the j nice of the iiyiigred/w
fruit for non-Brahmans to drink.^ It is probable that this fruit, like
the di1rv(i and fcusu grasses, was accepted as a substitute for Soma
more by virtue of its own sacred nature than for any resemblance to
the Soma plant.

Various other substitutes for Soma appear in the BrJ/uHdfKJS : sydmaka
(cultivated millet, said by the Br<j/n»uJMrt to be most like Soma

of all the plants),'* nnoyti grass (sacred in itselO. ktiltnirt (a fragrant
grass),* and parna (a sacred tree).* The European lexicographers -
Wilson, Roth, Monier-Williams - struggle to identify all these plants
in modern botanical terms but often arrive at conflicting conclusions,
as do the Brd/nurtMUS themselves. Certain pertinent facts emerge,
however, from the Brahmanic literature:

1. The colour red is consistently associated with the Soma substitute.
Red is the colour of the nyagrodha flower; the colour of the phillgutui
plant;’ the colour of the acceptable ditrvd grass;® and even the colour
of the cow used in the purchase of Soma.®

2 . There is a clear distinction between the identity of Soma and the
identity of the substitutes. For Soma one must look to the RgVeda;

1. Tdndya Brdhmana, 9.5.3.

а. Aitareya Brdhmana, Haug edition, 7.5.30.

3 - tCdtydyana ^rautasutra, Albrecht Weber, cd., Berlin, 1859, verse 7.8.13.

4 - iatapatha Brdhmana, 5. 3. 3.4.

5. C/. Hemacandra, Abhidhanadnldmani, cd. BdhtUngk and Roih. Sc. Peicrsburg, 1849, 1191-1192.

б . Cf. Kausitaki Brdhmana, Ananda&rama edition, 2.2. and BrJhmdita, 6.6. 3.7,

7. H. H. Wilson: Sanserif Dictionary, 1832, defines phJiguna as *a red plane, Arjunana pentaptcra/

8 . Rudolph von Roth, in his 1881 article in the Zcitschhft dcr IVHisc/icn AlorgenWnJisciicn Cfstllschaji,
Ober den Soma', identiHcd the red diSni grass with the Cynedan dactyhn which the Indians used,
according to Roxburgh, to make a drink, 'a very cheap kind of Soma* (einc sehr Wiige Soma), as
Roth remarked.

9. Taieririya SamFiitd, Keith edition, 6,1.6; Satapatha Bralimuna, 3.3.1.15.

PART TWO • CHAPTER II

tor the substitutes, the BrJ/nfuinoi are the earliest sources of impor-
tance. but they contain no passages about the authentic Soma of sure

evidential value. Thev are concerned with the ritual and svmbolic

• ^

nature of the Soma plant, not with its botanical identit}'.

II. L.\TER SANSKRIT WORKS

The writers of the post-Brahmanic period. Sanskrit lexicographers
and \'edic commentators, continued to dwell upon a multiplicity
of plants that seized as Soma, but most of them agreed upon only
one thing: that Soma was a creeper (vtilli or kitd). Yet nowhere in the
Rg\’eda do these terms appear. Soma being there considered an herb
(dsad/ii) or plant (virild/i). Amara Simha, the earliest of the Indian
lexicographers (ca. A. D. 450) gives many synonyms for what he
calls all of which Monier-Williams has the courage to define

as Ccccidus ccrdi/lifiiis. Amara also describes a plant that he calls
sojutinijf, which Monier-W'illiams says is Vernonia These

are distinguished from si'trJ.* The later lexicographers generally imi-
tate Amara in their discussions of Soma: Medini refers to an herb, the
Soma creeper.’ which Yaska had mentioned as an herb that caused
exhilaration when pressed and mixed with water,* while Sayana, the
most famous of the \'edic commentators, refers to it as the Soma
creeper.’ Sabarasvami. another great commentator, also refers to
Soma as a creeper, but one that yields milky juice;* this was to be
retained as an acceptable attribute of Soma from then on through the
European discussions, and the belief in the milky sap appears in the
Hindu medical works as well.’

r. AmarakcU, Kielhom edition. Bombay, 2.4 ®i“3 and 2-4*95*

2. JhJ.. 1.I0,3». Amara gives as svnonyms for suru .he terms varu^tmnya. haUpnyd

latter may refer to an into.«cating liquor made from herbs or to the Soma of the \ edas (Rg\ eoa

u and Satapdlha Bruhmnna ix.7.i.7)-

3..\Wintfa?hi. Nathalal Laxmichand edition. 36-

4 . Yiskas.Vi|hjntu<irtJ.Viruhd,LaksmanSarup.cd..Universit)ofihePunja .I927.JI- • •

pnnJti mnamdnaui is given as the etymologx’ for ninmpana.

5- Commentary on Rg\eda in 48*. Max .Muller edition. ... - , , ,, ^ma is called

1 . Sabarasvami. commentary on the Purva .Mimimn: Surra. Gaekwad edition. 2.2., 7. Soma is

7 %^r^P^n to soma of a 'milky quality was probably based upon the

Lma was t4ed with milk, or that Soma itself became white when muted with milk, or that

LATER SANSKRIT WORKS

One might expect the early medical treatises to be less tancitul
than the hut this is not the case. The D/innvtinhiny'(jm-

g/iiiiitu, a medical work ot cti. A. D. 1400. says that the Soma creeper
yields the Soma milk and is dear to Brahmans.' The KJjtniig/iiiiifu
describes the properties of Soma: the seimivnlh has great clusters and
is a bow-like creeper, yielding the Soma milk; the semdvu/lr is acrid,
pungent, cool, black, sweet, and it serves to dispel biliousness, to
quench thirst, to cause wounds to dry up. and to purify.* A more
detailed, but hardly more scientific, description appears in the Sii.sru-
a medical text in verse, dating from perhaps the fourth
century A. D., which reduces to its ultimate absurdity the passion
for symmetry and classification that permeates these writings. It
tells us that although there was originally created one kind of
semavulli. it was then divided into twenty-four varieties: umsnnmii
Soma smells like ghee; mun/uru Soma has leaves like those of garlic;
garudiilirm (= syenu/irtu) and svetJbu (‘white-eyes’) are pale, look like
cast-off snake-skins, and are found pendant from the boughs of trees;
etc.’ Unfortunately, the enumeration of these varieties proves of
limited value for botanical identification: one reads that all of them
have the same qualities, all are creepers with milky juice, all are used
in the same way, and all have fifteen black leaves, which appear one
per day during the waxing moon and drop off one per day during the
waning moon.'*

juice of Soma was in the niciaphorical sense of the supreme liijuid, or the liquid pressed out
of a swollen container: for it must be noted that nowhere in the Vedas is the raw 5 oina juice
itself described as white or milky, but always as yellow or brown or red or golden.

1. DI?anv<intarfy<imgfKiiii«, Ananda&rama Series No. 33, Poona, 1890; verse 4.4.

2. Ananda&rama Scries No. 33; verses 3.29*3o. The pertinent terms are:
d/ttjnurv<j|IF: katul iitJ madhurd; putddJliisirft (or alternate reading: pirtuddlMnui); trsnavilo^aiiirndm
(alternate reading: fcrsnJ viiosoidmjni); and pdv<inf (or pdeani).

3. SuirMtasamltitJ, Education Press, Calcutta. 1834, chapter 29 . 1 have been unable to find the quotation
in other editions of this work, but it is quoted in full in the itfMukdlpddruma (Vol. v. p. 417).
Calcutta. 1814, which attributes it to the Suhuta. It will be noted that several of the Siiirnfu’s 'varieties*
of Soma refer to substitutes mentioned in the Brahmanas.

4. This lunar connection is an extrapolation of the mythological association of Soma with the moon
in the Vedas, and it accounts for the name 'moon-plant* given to Soma by the Bengalis of the last
century. Yet Edward Balfour, in his Cyclopt^dia of India, published in London in 1885. maintained
that the Soma plant itself derived its name from the Sanskrit word for moon. soma, because *ii was
gathered by moonlight.*

PART TWO • CHAPTER III

Folk medicine and medical science in India are known collectively
as Ayurveda (The Sacred Knowledge of Long Life’). There is a widely
quoted Ayurvedic verse, found both in Dhurtasvami’s commentary
on Apastamba’s of the black Yajur Veda and in the Bhdva-

prakdsa, that Max Muller cited in 1855 as the earliest ‘scientific’
description of Soma that he knew. It describes the plant as a black
creeper, sour, leafless, yielding milk, having fleshy skin, causing or
preventing phlegm, causing vomiting, and eaten by goats. ‘ In spite of
the admittedly late origin of this description, and in spite of the many
equally authoritative descriptions in earlier Sanskrit works which
contradict it, it ser\'ed European scholars as a peg on which to hang
their favourite theories. Its sharp detail and ‘scientific’ tone contrasted
favourably with such descriptions as that of the SH.^rut<j, and it seemed
to agree with the descriptions of Soma given to Westerners by Indians
of that day.

III. EARLY EUROPEAN REFERENCES

The earliest non-Indian notices of Soma are in the Avesta, where the
plant appears as Haoma, but these references are more obscure than
those of the ?lgVeda; the question of the ‘authenticity’ of the Soma
cult of the Avesta will be discussed below as it arises in the course of
European discussions. The earlier parts of the Avesta -the Yaks-
refer to Haoma as being strained for the sacrifice,* as the only drink
which is attended with piety rather than with anger,^ as a tall, golden
plant^ with golden eyes.* The Yasna devotes three full hymns to
Haoma (9-11), which it describes as growing in the mountains,^ pressed

1. Cited by F. Max MuUer in 'Die Todtenbestanung bci den Brahmancn,' Zetuchrifi der Deuucben

MorgenlOndischm Gesellschaji, No. 39, i 8 s 5 . PP- reads.

iyimald 'mid ca nispatrd fcsin>ti tvaci mdmali
ileftnald vamarn vdlli somdkJiyd chdgabhojanam

2. Yost fragment 11.9. This and the following arc from the edition of James Darmesieicr and L. H.
Mills, Sacred Backs of the East, Volumes 4.

3. Ashi Yost, 2.5, jnd Yasna, 10.8.

4. Siro^ah, 1.10.

^.Aihi Yast. 6,y/, Ges Yast, 4*17. and MiWr Yast, 13 . 88 «

6. Yasna, to y

100

EARLY EUROPEAN REFERENCES

twice a day,' odoriferous.* possessing many trunks, stems, and bran-
ches.^ and yielding a yellow juice which is to be mixed with milk;^
Haoina is golden and has a flexible stem.* The rusnu seems to distin-
guish between Haoma and other intoxicating beverages, of which it
disapproves, but it has been suggested that Zoroaster hated the Haoma
drinkers as well as drinkers in general." Beyond this general descrip-
tion. and the evidence that the Soma cult was at least Indo-Iranian
rather than simply Indian in its origin, the Avesta sheds little light on
the Soma problem.

Megasthcnes said of the Indians. They never drink wine except at
sacrifices.’ distinguishing this sacrificial wine from their ordinary li-
quor - probably .sura - which he describes as ‘composed of rice instead
of barley.’’ McCrindle suggests that this ‘wine was probably Soma
Juice.’ and as the passage is certainly pre-Tantric it must in fact reler

to Soma. Thus Megasthenes - misled no doubt by the similar rites
among his own people - must be held responsible for the origination
of a misconception that continues to plague Vedic studies to the
present day. Plutarch speaks of a plant that the Iranians dedicated to
a religious use:

For pounding in .i mortar an herb called fijiwtii they invoke Hades
and darkness ; then having mingled it with the blood of a slaughtered
wolf, they bear it forth into a sunless place and cast it away.®

Bernadakis conjectured that this optojit was the same as the pwX’j of
the Odyssey x 305, a fabulous herb probably cognate with the Sanskrit
uiii/rt (root); Orientalists of note, including Paul Anton de Lagarde,*’
have suggested that 5 ji<ojit was none other than the Haoma of the
Iranians, the Soma of the Indians. In 1929 Emile Benveniste dismissed
this notion:

1. Yasna, 10.2.

2. Yasna, 10.4,

3. Yusna, 10.5; supra, pp. 19*11.

4- Yasna, 10.13.

5. Yasna, 9.16.

6 Henrik Samnel Nybcrg: Die Religionen des AlUn Irans, Leipzig. 1938, pp. 188. 144, and 188

7. Megasthenes* Jndika, translated by J.W. McCrindle. Calcutta. 1887 (Schwanbcck edition. Bonn.
1846), fragment 27. page 69. Quoted by Strabo. 15.1.53-56.

8. Plutarch: Dc Jside et Osire, Squire edition. 1744, p. 117: |ilj.

9. Vide infra, p. 108.

101

PART TWO • CHAPTER III

We must beware of correcting the text on this point, as the majority
of editors have done following P. de Lagarde. The substitution of
the plant {iwXu for the enigmatic is the device of harassed

interpreters and is no better than the explanation ofS^KOfiii by Iwuma;
the first is arbitral^', and the second absurd . . . is another
name of which is used in the cult of Ahriman as haxima is

sacred to the cult of Ohrmazd.*

In 1771 A. H. Anquetil-Duperron brought out the first translation of
the Avesta, after having spent some years in India in association with
the Parsis. For the Haonia plant, he observed, the Parsis used a tree
(arbre) which, they said, grew in Persia but not in India and resembled
a vine but never bore any fruit. Anquetil-Duperron thought the plant
resembled a kind of heather (bruyere), with knots very close together
and leaves like those of jasmine. ‘All these details lead me to believe
that the Horn is the dptopo: of the Greeks and the rt»ic>»non of the
Romans.’* As the Indo-Iranian connection was not yet established, nor
the Soma cult itself discovered, this suggestion was not pursued.

Then in 1784 the first translation of a Sanskrit work into English
appeared, Charles Wilkins’s rendering of the Bhagavad Gitd. In it he
included a note: ‘Sum is the name of a creeper, the juice of which is
commanded to be drunk at the conclusion of a sacrifice. ’ This is
the earliest published citation of Soma in a European language that I
have found. In his 1794 translation of the laws of Manu, Sir William
Jones describes Soma as ‘the moon plant (a species of mountain-rue).
H. T. Colebrooke then published his translation of the Amarako’sa,
saying that the semrdj was Vernonia diitlie/minticd (= Conyz^ djit/ie/min-
n'cfl).* but cautioning his readers that commentators seldom descnbe

1. Emile Bcnveniste: The Persian Rehgicn: According to the Chief Greek Texts. .919. p. 74 .

is thought to be the Indian spice plant. Nepaul cardamom. It is mentioned m .Anstophanes The g^
1 10. and in Theophrastes' Historia Pianiarum. 9.7.1. where it is said to come from India as cardamom

comts from Persia. ^ . i* i „ ,s eie

2. A- H. Anquetil-Duperron: Za^d•Ay<sta. traduitpar Anquctil du Perren. Pam. I 77 i. \oli. p. 5 J 5 .

3. Charles Wilkins: The Bhdgcdt Geeta. Scrampore. 1784. p. 80. note 42.

1 Sir William Jones: Inshrutcs of Hindu Uw. or. the Ordinances of Manu

.H-T.Colebrioke: Cosh 4 or Dictionar. 0/ the Sansen. language.
interpretonon ani .Annonthons I., H. T. Colehroohe, Es,.. Serampore

U should be added that .Amara distingubhed thb plant from the somamll. for ^^h.ch Cole
gives no botanical name.

102

EARLY EUROPEAN REFERENCES

the plants they mention and that 'a source of error remains in the
inaccuracy of the Commentators themselves ... the correspondence
of Sanscrit names with the generick. and specifick names in Natural

History is in many instances doubtful.’'

In 1814. William Carey published his Hortus Bengalensis, which was
a summary of the manuscript that William Roxburgh was to publish
in 1832. Carey identified Stircesfe»i»ui fcrevistigNui (= Asclepias acula,
Sarcaste»uM<i tKuinm, Sarcostemma vijHin<i/e. Cy»i<i»c/iiji»i viimnalc) as the
plant known in Bengali and Sanskrit as and also remarked

that Riifu gnn’eo/ens, a rue, bore the same Sanskrit name.* He did not
link them with the Vedas, but he did take occasion to observe that
Himalayan plants do not grow in Bengal,’ an observation that was
ignored by the Vedic scholars who later used Roxburgh's work to
identify Soma.

In his 1819 SuHsfcrif Dicno»mry’, Horace Hayman Wilson identified
sojjui as 'the moon plant (Asefepius ucidHin) [= S<trcoste»HMm trevistigfMu],’
sonuivji//i as 'a twining plant (MenispermuHi g/uftrnm) [= TiMOsporu
cardi/o/ia].’ or 'a medicinal plant (Serrutnlu fl»u/ie!»n«tic<i ) [= I'ernomu
a»(/iWmi»ticrt]’; in the 1832 edition of the dictionary, he added semtirjjm,
which he defined as Serrain/u fl«r/ieijm>itic(t. though he still gave this as
an alternative for somavallt as well."*

Sir Graves Chamney Haughton, in his 1825 edition of Jones’s Ordinan-
ces of Mann, had corrected Jones's ‘mountain rue’ to 'swallow-wort
(Asclepifls acidum) [= SttreosternHW hrevislignui],’ probably following
Carey. Finally, in 1832 William Roxburgh published his Flora Indica;
he identified Stircosfemmti brevistigma with somdiufa in Sanskrit and
Bengali, a plant (as he said) of much milky juice of a mild nature and
acid taste. He added that 'native travellers often suck the tender

I. Colebrooke, 0p, cit., p. lo.

1. William Carey: Hortw Bengalensis. A Catalogue of the Plants Described by Dr. Roxburgh in JiU Mnnu-
icript Flora Indica, Calcutta. 1S14. pp. 20 and 32.

3. !bid., p. xi.

4. Horace Hayman Wilson: SJBskrit Dictionary. Calcuua. 1819 and 1832. In ideniifying somavaHi with

M^ispermum glabrum. Wilson was misled by Colebrookc, whose Amara Simha he cites for this
r^ercnce: Colebrwkc. though giving no definition of samavallf. had given Moiispermum glabrum
i-Tmospora cordifoha) for the plant guduci (guricha in Colebrooke s note) which appears in juxta-
position with in the Atnarakoia, ^

103

PART TWO • CHAPTER IV

shoots to allay their thirst.’* This is hardly the description of a plant
that induces religious ecstasy, but Roxburgh identifies it with som
mentioned by Wilkins as the sacrificial plant. He distinguishes it from
(as Colebrooke had done in 1808), which is Vernonia anthelmin-
liaj. a plant with an acid taste,* and he further distinguishes Calotropis
gi^iinteii (= Asclepujs gigtintea) as the plant used by the natives for
medical purposes.

From these beginnings down to our own time Soma has been iden-
tified with various species of Sarcostemma (= Asclepiads, related to
the American milkweeds), of Ephedra, of Periploca, all of them leafless
climbers superficially resembling each other, yet belonging to genera
botanically far apart. Botanists in India would gather specimens,
identify them with scientific names, and add the vernacular names
that local helpers would give them, such as sojjwfutJ. Linguists and
serious travellers would occasionally bring back plant names picked
up in the various languages spoken from India to Iran that seemed to
stem back to Soma or Haoma-e.g., /nunrt, yehma; iim, nina; tim,
iimbur^-and, linking them to the plant to which they belonged,
present to the world another candidate for Soma. Most of these plants
were or had been at some time used as substitutes for Soma or Haoma :
to be eligible, plants had to meet certain requirements, which may
have changed from area to area and from century to century. R. G.
Wasson’s Brahman informants said to him that the substitute Somas
had to be small, leafless, and with fleshy stems, attributes that are
common in varying degrees to the three genera listed above and to
the traditional descriptions in the Brdhmanas and medical texts.

IV. MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

For the next fifty years, Sanskritists and botanists alike merely
elaborated upon Roxburgh’s identification. Henry Piddington gives
•Sarcostemma viminale’ for the Bengali scorn and ‘Asclepias acidum tor

I. William Roxburgh: Flora Indica. Scramporc. 1852, Vo!, n. p.

2. IW., Vo!. Ill, p. 406.

3. George Wacr : Dictionary of the Economic
article on 'Ephedra/ Vide infra, p. 121 •

Froducu of India, Calcutta, 1890, cites

these examples In his

104

MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

105

PART TWO • CHAPTER IV

50 »mhaii,' but these two names are now considered to represent the
same species: Sarcoste»i»ui brevistig»m. John Stevenson, in his transla-
tion of the Veda, says that Soma is 'Sarcostemma viminale,' ‘the
moon-plant’ and describes in some detail the method of its use,
observing that according to the commentator it is pressed and mixed
with barley and allowed to stand for nine days, ‘but how many days
precede [the ceremony] and how many follow, I do not know . . . the
Soma, when properly prepared, is a powerful spirit . .

Vedic studies had now begun to assume considerable importance
in Europe. In 1844, Eugene Burnouf published the first of a series of
articles on Haoma, wherein he said that the Haoma juice, obtained by
trituration, was the same as the Soma of the Vedic sacrifice, but he did
not venture a botanical identification.’ In 1845, J. O. Voigt published
his Hortiis Siiburbanus Calcnttensis, a catalogue of the plants in the
H. E. I. C. Botanical garden. Once again soma-rdj is Ventonia anthehnin-
tica and is S^lr^:osrem^^u^ fcrevistigmfl; Voigt also mentions that

farmers use the Srtrcosteinnw brevistigma to rid their fields of white
ants.^ He draws attention to the use of the Asclepiads in general as
emetics and to their acrid and bitter milk, and points out that in the
West Indies they are a popular remedy for worms in children, given
in doses of a teaspoon to a tablespoon.*

Friedrich Windischmann thought that the Soma plant might be
Sflrco5te»nJW brevisIigiHC, but he doubted that the Indian Soma was the
same as the Haoma of the Persians, as the plant might have changed
with the change in location. Yet he considered that the Avesta pre-
served the tradition of Soma and the sacrifice better than the RgVeda
did, and he called attention to the Persian belief (remarked long ago by
Anquetil-Duperron) that Soma did not grow in India.^ Christian Lassen

1. Henrj- Piddingion: An Engiish Index to the Plants of India. Calcutta, 1831. p- 79 and p. 9-

2. John Stevenson: SduhitJ o/tftc Sima Veda. London. 1841. p->v. ■ i„„nal Asia-

3. Eugta Burnouf: 'E.udc ,ur 1 , l.nguo o. ,ur .v: Lo D,=u Horn., As.a

fia«e, Series. No. 4, December. 1844. p. 468. fasi India

4. J. O. Voigt: Hortus Stihurbanus Calcnttensis. A Catalogue of the Plants m t e
Company Botanical Garden, Calcutta. 1845. PP- 405 and 541-

g;™odrich”ldischm,n„:X'bcrdcnScmakul.u.dorArior;dW»dl»^^

Akadamic der Wissaischaftcn, Munich, 1S46, pp.

106

mid-nineteenth century

added his assent that Soma was Stira'steinnia and \\ illiam

Dwight Whitney wrote that Soma was

a certain herb, the .Asciepiai acida [ = Sarcostemma breviJtigina], which
grows abundantly upon the mountains of India and Persia . . . hich.
when fermented, possesses intoxicating qualities. In this circum-
stance, it is believed, lies the explanation of the whole matter. The
simple-minded Arian [sic] people ... had no sooner perceived that
this liquid had power to . . . produce a temporan- frenzy . . . than
they found in it something divine . - .*

Otto Bohtlingk and Rudolph von Roth accepted only tentatively
SarcosfefMJHii brevistigjua as Soma, and perspicaciously added that it
seemed to grow’ farther south than the \’edas indicate.’

Friedrich Max iMuller in 1855 published an important article in
which he quoted Dhurtasvami’s description of Soma* and said that
this seemed to agree most strikingly with the accepted botanical
descriptions of various Sarcostemmas. But he doubted whether the
Vedic Soma would be found growing in Bombay (where the Sarco-
stemmas are found) rather than in the mountains of the North.
Moreover, he asked, why would the Indians of the era of the BrJ/uHdfuis
use piitifea as a substitute for Soma if thev could find ‘Soma’ itsell-
i.e.. Sarcostemma spp. - right in Bombay?*

For thirty years no notice was taken of this Ayui^-edic source, nor
of Max Muller’s doubts. Major Heber Drur)- accepted Stircosfemma
bre\’istignui as and Walter Elliot referred to the

same species.’ Martin Haug believed that the Persians had probably
replaced the original Haoma with something else, retaining the name.

1. Chhsdan Lassca: Jndiuhi Alunumskund^, Bonn. 1847. Volume i, p. 2S1.

2. William D>^*ight Whitney: ‘On the main results of Vedic researches in Germany, Vv'unul efthe
American Oriental Society, No. 3. 1853, p. 199.

5. Otto Bohtlingk and Rudolph von Roth: StfiufcnmxJrtrrfruch nebst alien SachrrJ$en, St Petersburg,
*^ 55 - 75 .

4. Vide supTO^ p. 100.

5 . F. Ntax Muller: ‘Die Todicnbcstatmng bci den Brahmancn/ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Slcrgenlln-
dischen Gesellschaft^ No. 39, 1855. p. xlii ff.

6. Major Heber Drur)-: Vs^ Pltnts of India, Madras, 1858. p. 385.

7. Walter EUioi: Flora Andhrica, A Vemaailar and Botankal Ust of Plants Commonly Met with in the
Tehgu District, Madras, 1859, p. 169.

107

PART TWO • CHAPTER IV

and he thought that the present-day Soma of the Indians was in fact a
substitute, but that the substitute retained in a measure the qualities
of the true V'edic plant, with no leaves and a bitter white sap: Tt is a
very nasty drink, but has some intoxicating effect,’ he wrote, having
tasted it several times but being unable to take more than a few
teaspoonfuls.'

Sir George Christopher Birdwood, in his Catalogue of the Vegetable
Productions of the Presidency of Bombay, including a list of the drugs sold
in the bai^aars of Western India, included Sarcostemma brevistigma under
'drugs’, identifying it as the somalutd of the Vedas, a ‘fermented li-
quor . . . mixed with barley and ghee . . . This wine was drunk at all
their religious ceremonies and was used as an intoxicant by the rishis . . .
Water passed through a bundle of somalutd and a bag of salt will
extirpate white ants from a field watered with it.’“ Birdwood identi-
fied Sarcostemma brevistigma with S. acida and expressed the view that
'the Som of the Vedas and the Horn of the Zend Avesta’ were perhaps
'the real plant . . . present to the mind of the writer ... of the first
chapters of Genesis,'^ - an original contribution to the debate, and one
of the few that is not echoed by anyone. In this year, Eugene Burnouf
published his Sanskrit dictionary, wherein he described Soma as the
juice of Sarcostemma brevistigma; the following year, J. Forbes Watson
described the Soma plant as Sarcostemma brevistigma; the somalata
(Telegu) as the same species; and the somalutd (Sanskrit) as Ruta
graveolens.*

Paul Anton de Lagarde (Paul Anton Boetticher) maintained that
Sptopi was another word for poiXu or nviycc'/ov, the mountain rue, and
that it was a substitute used by the Greeks when they no longer had
the hdm itself, the original sacred plant.* Drawing attention to the
Odyssey verse describing the pwXu as a plant with a black root and a

I. Martin Haug: on the Religiimcftlu Panees, i86i. pp. 219-221. and Aiureya Brdhmana, Bombay.

l^Sir Ltrge Chlmpher Birdwood: Catahgu, o/thr V,gcu.blc Prodnrtionr 0/ ifePrrridmo'

Bombay. 1^5. p. 53*

I X ForL^^atson : /ndtx to Noiivr ond Scicniijic ond Othrr Economfr PJontr and PrcdacU.

Londoia. 1S66, p. $30.

5. Paul Anton de Ugardc: Abhandlungen. Leipzig, iS66. p. 174-

I08

MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

flower white as milk,‘ and to the mythological significance of rue/
Lagarde maintained that the description of the harmal (= haoma =
o[i(ojiL = ptoAu) given by Arabian botanists described the plant pre-
cisely: a shrub with leaves like those of a willow and flowers like those
of jasmine, with an intoxicating and soporific effect/ He added that
Soma and Haoma were not the same plant, though they had the same
name and use, and he linked the Soma ot the RgVeda to rue by
means of the Vedic epithet siihdsnipJjas, 'possessing a thousand pdjas,’
which he related to the Greek term for rue.

But no matter how many botanists and scholars accepted the Sar-
costemma thesis, there were always reservations held in some quar-
ters. In 1871 John Garrett declared flatly that ‘the Soma of the Vedas
is no longer known in India’.* Nevertheless J. D. Hooker elaborated
upon his earlier identification of Soma with Srtrcostefnnui hriinoniflmim
by observing that this plant abounded in an acid milky juice and was
‘hence eaten by the natives as salad, and sucked by travellers to allay
thirst, thus forming a remarkable exception to the usually poisonous
nature of the Asclepiadeous juices.’* Still there was room for new
theories: Drury suggested that the ‘moon creeper’ might be Calo-
iiyctiou miiricatum (Ipomcea miiricata), a plant whose swollen pedicels
are cooked as vegetables and whose seeds are used as purgatives.’
Nevertheless, Hermann Grassmann, whose Vedic dictionary is the
standard work to this day, accepted the general view that Soma was a
Sarcostemma.*

In 1 873 Rajendra Lala Mitra revived the case for Soma as an alcoholic
beverage. The original Indo-Aryans drank ‘soma-beer and strong
spirits,' which, when they moved to the hoc climate of India, tended to

1. Odyssey, x,

2. Jacob Ludwig Grimm: (Gottingen. 1835), p, 962. had mentioned that rue W2S

used in sdcrihces to the devil.

3. Lagarde. op. cit., p. 175.

4. The term sahdsrapdjas, occurring only twice in the Rg\'cda (ix 13^ and ix 423 ). is generally trans-
lated as 'possessing a thousand forms/ or 'colours'* or 'rays*.

5. John Garrett: Classical Dictionary of India, Madras. 1871, p. 594.

^.Joseph Dalton Hooker: CurtisV Botanical j\taga^ne, London. 1872, Tab. 6002.

7. Major Hcbcr Drury: Useful Plants of India (2"^ edition). London. 1873.

8. Hermann Grassmann: Wdrurbuch ^um Rig Veda, Leipzig. 1873.

109

PART TWO • CHAPTER IV

make them ill. ‘The later Vedas, accordingly, proposed a compromise,
and leaving the rites intact, prohibited the use of spirits for the
gratification of the senses.’* Soma was ‘made with the expressed juice
of a creeper {Asdepias acida or Sarcostemma viminale) [both = Sarcostem-
ma fcrevistigHui] diluted with water, mixed with barley meal, clarified
butter [ghee], and the meal of wild paddy [nivdra], and fermented in a
jar for nine days. . . . The juice of the creeper is said to be of an add
taste, but I have not heard that it has any narcotic property.’ Mitra
was of the opinion that the starch of the two meals - barley and wild
paddy - produced ‘vinous fermentation’ and that the Soma juice
promoted fermentation and flavoured the brew while checking the
acetous decomposition, in the manner of hops.* In this way Mitra
seemed to cover every likelihood - except for the possibility that Soma
was not alcoholic at all, but a plant containing a psychotropic drug. It
should also be pointed out that Mitra speaks of ‘soma-beer and strong
spirits.’ Presumably he used this latter term in its customary sense,
meaning distilled alcohol. This is an anachronism.

In 1874 Arthur Coke Burnell called attention to the fact that there
were different ‘Somas’ in different parts of India, the Hindus of the
Coromandel coast using Sarcostemma brevistigma in their rites, and
those of the Malabar coast using Ceropegia decaisneana or C. ekgans.^
In the following year, Martin Haug elaborated on his previous descrip-
tions by describing the Soma plant as a small twining creeper with a
row of leafless shoots containing sour, milky sap; he identified the
plant as Sarcostemma intermedium, mentioning S. brevistigma and S.
brunoniamim as related varieties, and he expressed his opinion that the
plants denoted at the present time by the terms somalatd and somavalli
were later substitutes.*

In 1878 Friedrich Spiegel reported that the Indian Parsis sent their
priests to Kerman to obtain Haoma.® This was the year that saw the

1. Rajendra Lala Mitra: ‘Spiriiuoiis Drinks in Andcnt India.

Bengal, 1873, p. 2-

2. Ibid., p. 21.

3. Arthur Coke BuracU: Elements of South Indian Paleography. Mangalore. 1874, P- «-

4. Marlin Haug: in a review of Grassmann’s Wirterbuchi GSttittgische Gelehru An?eigen. 1875. PP-

584-595- , . ^

5. Friedrich Spiegel: Eranisclu Alunhumskunae, Leipzig* 1678, VoJ. to, p. 57 ^-

110

MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

publication of Abel Bergaigne’s La Religion Ve.iupie ; Bergaigne thought
that Soma was a fermented drink and that milk was added to it to
help the fermentation process. He calls it a spirituous liquor, the word
spirituous (inic /igiieiir spiriliieuse) being applicable in a broad sense
to any volatile inebriating drink.'

In 1879. Heinrich Zimmer acknowledged that present-day Hindus
used a kind of Sarcostemma, citing Haug and adding that the nausea
Haug had experienced was consistent with the Bni/inttiini descriptions
of Soma: but he expressed doubts whether this plant, found in
Bombay and all over India, could have grown in the high site of Vedic
civilization. He quoted various Bni/nnuiia references to substitutes to
support his thesis that Sarcostemma was in tact just such a substitute,
which had appeared in the course of time.*

In 1881 Mitra reiterated his beer theory.* and Kenneth Somerled
Macdonald wrote. ‘Soma is now admitted, we believe, by the best
Sanskrit scholars to have been intoxicating. The numerous references
in the Rg\’eda are consistent only with such an interpretation. He
proceeded to repeat Mitra’s theory in great detail, though he tailed to
give Mitra credit for it.

The early i88o's saw the most enthusiastic and intense period of the
Soma debate. Scholarly tempers flared, new and important nantes
began to appear, and ingenious theses were advanced. Rudolph von
Roth began it with an article in which he reviewed all the recent
theories about Soma as well as some of the BrJ/imuiui information: he
concluded that although Stircasteninui brevisfignui seemed to be well
established as the present-day Soma plant, there was no assurance
that this plant - which grew in the plains - was the Vedic plant, which
must still grow in the mountains.* Though he believed that the Soma
of the Br(i/imtni<js was a substitute made necessar^’ when the Vedic
people moved away from their original home, he felt that the true

1. Abel Bergaigne: La RtUgicn Vddique, Pahs. 1878. Vol. 1. pp. ix and 148.

2. Heinrich Zimmer: Aln’ndisches Leben. Berlin. 1879, p. 275.

3 . Rajendra Lala Mitra: InJty.ir^'ans, London. x88i. pp. 390-419.

4- Kenneth Somerled Macdonald: The Vedic Reli^cn, London. 1881. p. 66.

5. Rudolph von Roth: ‘Ober den Soma.' Zciuchrift da Deutschm Morgmldndtschcn Geseflscbay). No. 35,
i88k. pp. 680-692.

Ill

PART TWO • CHAPTER IV

Soma was probably some species of Sarcostemma or at least an
Asclepiad, and he felt that any information about the present-day
Soma might shed light on the Vedic plant.

In the following year, Edward William West expressed the opinion
that the plants used for Soma in India and Persia at the present rime
were substitutes for the original Haoma-Soma plant, and he observed
that the most common substitute in South and West India was the
Srtrc(?stef?i»ia l)revi5tig»w. 'a leafless bush of green succulent branches,
growing upwards, with flowers like those of an onion,’ and resembling
Euphorbia tinicalli or thornless milk-bush when not in flower.' In that
same year Angelo de Gubernatis, quoting Roth, expressed doubt
whether the Soma plant could be identified at that time; he suggested
that perhaps the Soma cult had shifted to wine in Persia, Asia Minor,
and Greece, and that in India in later times its place was taken by a
beverage offered to the gods and deliberately made unpalatable so
that no mortal would be tempted to drink it.*

In 1883 Monier- Williams brought out his Religious Thought and Life
in India. He defined Soma as Surcosfemum hrevistigmo, ‘a kind of creeper
with succulent, leafless stem.’ but he added, 'And yet it is remarkable
that this sacred plant [the original, true Soma] has fallen into complete
neglect in modern limes. When I asked the Brahmans of North
India to procure specimens of the true Soma for me, I was told that,
in consequence of the present sinful condition of the world, the holy
plant had ceased to grow on terrestrial soil, and was only to be found
in heaven.’ Nevertheless a creeper ‘said to be the true Soma’ had
been pointed out to him by Burnell in South India, where it was being
used by orthodox Brahmans.’

In 1884 D. N. Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij published a book of some 240
pages devoted entirely to Soma and containing a great deal of learned
and imaginative material; unfortunately, since it was published in
Russian and never translated, it was not noted by subsequent scholars
writing in other European languages, though Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij

r. Edward William West: Pahlavi Texts. Sacred Bocks of the East. Volume i8. 1882. p. 164-

2. Aiigelo dt Gubcmacis: La Mythohgu dcs Plantes, Paris, 1S82. Vol. n* pp.

3. Sir Monier Monier- Williams: RWigioui Thought and Life in India, London, 1S83, pp. 12 U

II 2

MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY

was familiar with all of the significant literature in German. French,
and English.' He maintained, on grounds of sound linguistic reasoning,
that the word ‘soma’ applied first to the plant and later to the juice
and went on to discuss this plant:

At the same time, the terms Soma and Haoma did not cease to
signify also the divinity, whose gift or attribute the intoxicating bev-
erage was considered to be. As concerns this last, it is presently
obtained in India from a plant of the family Asclepias <icui*i. Whether
it was obtained from the same plant in antiquity, or from another,
or if from another, from which particular one - all of these are
questions that of necessity must remain for the time being without
an answer. The description of the flower and the liquid of Soma in
the RgV'eda is not applicable to Asclepifls acida and the beverage
obtained from it.’

Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij described the sacrament of collecting Soma as
taking place at night, ‘in the light of the moon,’ observing: ‘Perhaps
this feature has some link wdth the later identification of Soma with
the moon.’"* He continued:

It was mixed with water, sour milk, and barley com. Then it
undervvent fermentation, after which a strong, intoxicating beverage
was obtained. The description of this procedure is met in a number
of places in the ninth Mandala of the RgVeda, but always in a
fragmentary and often obscure form.’

This was the more or less conventional view of Soma, but then
Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij went on to express his doubts that Soma had
been a product of fermentation at all, and to suggest - in cautious but
clear terms - that Soma might have been some sort of narcotic.

1. D. N. Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij: ZdpuM /mp^rdtorskojo jVovorosiiskogo UnivmiKM, Volume 39. Odessa,
1884. Chast' i: Kul'c bozhestva Soma v Drevnei Indii v epokhu Ved. (Part i: The Cult of the Deity •Soma'
in Ancient India in the Vedic Epoch] I am indebted to D. M. O’Flaherty for the translation.

2. Ibid., p. 7.

3. Ibid., p. 8.

4. Idem. This peculiar notion appears only one year later in the Cyclopeedia of Edward Balfour (vide
supra, p. 99). but it is most unlikely that he knew Ovsianiko-Kulikovskii’s work.

5. Ibid., p. 9.

PART TWO • CHAPTER IV

This is by far the earliest reference to such a possibility, and it is si-
gnificant that it appears in the writings of a Russian, who may have
known of the Siberian cults:

It is possible that the narcotic power of Soma was greater than the
similar power of other drinks used in the time of the Veda; possibly
it was of an essentially different nature. The action of Soma is always
depicted in the most many-hued colours, as something fascinating,
elevating, illuminating: on the other hand the action of common
drink (sura) is painted in far from such attractive colours ... It is
also quite possible that the superiority of Soma was entirely imagi-
nary and rested solely on that religious sanction which fell to the
portion of Soma (that is, not Asclepias acida or any other sort of Indian
plant, but - Soma, as a religious and cultural psychological con-
ception) as early as the most remote Indo-Iranian antiquity.'

Roth then brought out another paper, in which he emphasized his
feeling that Soma must still exist.* But he acknowledged that Albert
Regel, the botanist employed by the Russian government, who had
searched for Soma at Roth’s request in the Syr Datya and Amu Darya
watersheds, had reported finding no trace of a plant meeting Soma’s
description. Regel had expressed his opinion that the closest thing to
Soma that he had found had been rhubarb, though he admitted that
rhubarb was not used by the natives to make any intoxicating drink.
Roth had supplied him with Vedic descriptions of Soma, and from
them it was clear that none of the Asclepiads, Euphorbias, Ferulas,
yellow Compositae. or Cannabis sativd (hemp) conformed to the
formula. Wilkens, a zoologist specializing in South Turkestan, had
reported to Roth that in his opinion Soma might be Peganum harmala,^
belonging to the Rutaceae, though it lacked the sweetness and
juiciness that the true Soma was thought to have had. Nothing
daunted, Roth ended up with a flourish: 'Usbekistani today may
drink their kumiss in cups in which Soma once gave them cheer. ... To

1. Ovsiamko-Kulikovskij, op. cit., p. ii. ^

2. Rudolph von Roth: 'Wo vvachsi der Soma?'. Zauchrifi der Da,uch^ MorgM^chcn (ksdlsM,.

No. 38. I88j. pp. I34-J39-

3. The hartnal to which Lagardc had referred.

II4

FILE NL'MBER IIS

find the Soma one need not be a bocanL't: the plant will have to be
recognized in all its juiciness rSaftrulIe] by ever)' eye.

V. FILE NUMBER US

Charles James Lvall. Secretary- to the Chief Commissioner ot Assam,
translated Roth’s papers and forwarded them, ^\^th his own remarks,
to the Afghan Frontier Delimitation Commission. They in turn hand-
ed them over to the botanist George Watt, who published them
with Ills added remarks, under the heading. ‘A note upon Dr. Roth s
suggestion regarding the Soma Plant . in a document issued as File
No. iiS of the Government ot India. Revenue and .Agricultural De-
panment. Simla. .August 20. 1SS4.

Watt felt that Roth had produced no evidence that Soma was a
species of Sarcostemma or anv other .Asclepiad: he considered it a
great pirv that Dr. Roth, instead of propounding his own theon.* at
such length and in attempting to confute arguments against it. did
not rather publish briefly the leading passages from Sanskrit literature
descriptive of the plant . . . placing in the hands of the naturalist to the
CommLssion a brief abstract from the Sanskrit authors, and thus leave
his mind unbiased bv anv theories.’ Watt was of the opinion that Soma
was not necessarilv a succulent, juio* plant, but that it might be rather
a drv branch used in a decoction, ‘either bv simple maceration or
boiling.’ He went on: ‘Can any one who has examined the bitter
milky sap of the .Ascledpiada^ . . . suppose that such a liquid could
ever be used for more than a medidnal purpose, and still less become
the Soma of the \ edas? It is much more likely that the oblong fruits of
the .Afghan grape , . imported into the plains, as thev are at the
present day, afforded the sweet and refreshing cup of which our
.Ar\'an ancestors became drunk while wTapt in the obli\ion of religious
enthusiasm.’* He did not pursue this suggestion, however, and consid-
ered the Composite or Umbelliferae more likelv than the .Asclepiads
as candidates for Soma.

I. That the .Aryans knew ai such a £nai and o£ an akoboiS: drink made from U is establisfced br
Pantm'i reiercntx to the sweet grape juice of Kipiii. north of KabuJ Wnmi 4.2.99 .

PART TWO • CHAPTER V

In reply to this, Max Muller wrote to the Academy journal on
October 20. 1884, misquoting Haug (‘it was extremely nasty and not
at all exhilarating’, where Haug had described the Soma he tasted as
‘a very nasty drink, but [it] has some intoxicating effect’), referring to
the Brdhmatui substitutes and the tradition that Soma 'was brought
by barbarians from the North,’ and finally getting to the point - that
he, Friedrich Max Muller, had published thirty years earlier the
'oldest scientific description of the Soma plant’ that he knew of or had
hope of finding, the Dhurtasvami description of the dark creeper
eaten by goats,'

On November 9, Roth replied in the same journal to ‘the learned
scholar’: ‘I did not, indeed, remember the passage referred to; but if
it had been in my mind I should scarcely have mentioned it . , He
said it was impossible to date the ’Ayurveda’, that Max Muller’s
passage sounded like descriptions of ‘the later, even the latest date,
especially in the so-called MglitiMtHS,’ taking exception to the adjective
vamani by insisting that ‘it is not to be supposed that the Soma, or its
principal substitute in later times, should have caused vomiting,' and,
as a parting blow, correcting Max Muller’s translation of slesmald
from ‘destroying phlegm’ to 'producing phlegm.' He concluded that
the plant described was merely the 'Soma of later times which we
know (that is, the Sarcostemma acida [brevistigma]), correctly described
as bearing no leaves.’ He still believed that the 'genuine original Soma
would bear great resemblance to its later substitute, and answered
Watt’s ‘decoction’ theory thus: ‘I am sorry not to be able to conform
my views to those of the distinguished botanist. The Aryans no more
drank a decoction of the Soma plant than they drank tea or coffee. It
would be, indeed, a disgrace to the interpreters of the Veda and
Avesta if Dr. Watt were right.’ He ended with the arch hope that the
botanists of the Commission 'will not bring us home, as Soma, the
Asafoetida, which there obtrudes itself upon one’s notice, or any

other Ferula.’

Max Muller replied on November 17 'n another letter to the
Academy, defending his Ayurvedic passage as ihe oldest scietitijic de-

I. VUe supra, pp. loo and 107.

II6

FILE NUMBER 118

scription of the Soma, standing up for his translation of sUsnuila as
dissolving rather than producing phlegm, and keeping his original
reading for nuihini rather than the pJv.nn' (purifying) suggested by
Roth. He admitted that 'this oldest scientific description of the Soma
plant’ might refer to a later substitute, and concluded : ‘As to the Soma
which the Brahmans knew (Rg\'eda x 85*). 1 shall welcome it when-
ever it is discovered, whether in the valley of the Oxus or in that of the
Neckar.’

At this point the botanists entered the forum. J. G. Baker of the
Kew Herbarium wrote to the Acdiiemy on November 15. noting that
Dr. Aitchison had been selected as the botanist to attend the Afghan
Delimitation Commission and supporting Max Muller’s faith in the
Sarcostemma, which, he pointed out, is eaten by men and animals
throughout Sindh. Arabia, and Persia. He said that the flowers of the
Pehplccii nyliylla are eaten by the natives of Baluchistan ‘and taste like
raisins.’ W. T. Thiselton-Dyer of the Royal Kew Gardens then sup-
ported Watt’s suggestion of the Afghan grapes: ‘That the primitive
Soma was something not less detestable than anything that could be
extracted from a Sarcostemma I find it hard to believe. When,
however, the original Soma was unprocurable, and the use became
purely ceremonial, the unpalatableness of the Soma substitute was
immaterial.’' The Sarcostemma. according to Thiselton-Dyer, was
chosen when the Soma plant was forgotten (or unavailable in the hot
plains) because ‘there is a faint resemblance in texture and appearance,
though not in form, between the joint of a Sarcostemma and an
unripe green grape,’ the Vedic Indians having had no word to distin-
guish a fruit from the stem of a plant, Thiselton-Dyer maintained.*

Max Muller answered this, on December 8, with a reference to the
Vedic tradition that Soma juice was mixed with barley milk, a process
that, he suggested, was incompatible with the grape hypothesis but
not with a kind of hops; he added that 'a venturesome etymologist
niight not shrink even from maintaining that hops and Soma are the

!• Here he refers co de Gubemaiis II, 352; xiJe supra, p. 112.

2. This is not true. Pkala, fruit, rccun in the PgVeda, referring to the fruit of a plant (not Soma)
rather than to the stem. Cf. RgVeda m 45**. iv 57^. x 71K x 97*^ and x 146S.

PART TWO • CHAPTER V

same word,’ deriving hops from Hungarian komlo, medieval Latin
humolo, medieval Greek yo’j|isXrj. and ultimately Sanskrit soma,
‘which, for a foreign word, brought from Persia into Europe, is toler-
ably near . . . Now hops mixed with barley would give some kind of
beer. Whether milk would improve the mixture I am not brewer
enough to know.’

Charles G. Leland then wrote to the Academy to support the hops
hypothesis with information about the soma or sumer (‘the pronun-
ciation is not fixed’) of the Romany tongue, apologizing that ‘any
confirmation of this, drawn from such a very disreputable source as
gypsy, is, indeed, not worth much,’ but pointing out that there was
much Sanskrit in gypsy words and that soma in Romany meant 'scent
or flavour . . . thus the hop gives the suma or soma to the beer, as the
lemon to punch.’ He added that the fact that hops do not grow in the
present dwelling place of the Hindus confirms rather than disproves
Max Muller’s theory, since if it were still available there the Indians
would be using it instead of the present substitute. At this point
(December 20), A. Houtum-Schindler wrote from Teheran with a tale
of a Sarcostemma that he had been shown by the Parsis in Kerman,
a plant with a greenish white juice and a sweetish taste that caused
vomiting w'hen taken in amounts of more than a dozen drops,
and that corresponded closely with Max Muller's Ayurvedic de-
scription “ if it was viewed only ‘several days after it had been col-
lected,’ by which time the stalk would have turned dark, the juice
turned sour, and the leaves fallen off. To this ingenious postulate he
added several descriptions of the Hum plant from various Persian
dictionaries, including one of a deadly poison the fruit of which is much
liked by partridges and which resembles a tamarisk tree- the latter
qualities evidently refer to another plant.’ W. T. Thiselton-Dyer then
identified still another plant used by the Parsis in their rites -the
Ephedra vulgaris which, he said, bore sweet red berries and somewhat
resembled Tamarix articiilata, like the plant mentioned by Houtum^^
Schindler: 'But he [Houtum-Schindler] also says it is "a deadly poison
(though apparently not to partridges). This does not agree wit

Ephedra, which is browsed by goats.’

118

FILE NUMBER 118

On this note the Academy correspondence ended, but the argument
continued. On January 25. 1885. Watt published his 'Second Note on
the Soma Plant.’ in which he said that a Dr. Dymock of Bombay
had sent him a Haoma plant which was Periploca aphylia and had told
him he thought that the plant was not used to obtain liquor but
that a small portion of it was added to a liquor obtained from grain;
he added that, according to the Parsis. the Haoma never decayed. This
strengthened Watt’s opinion that Soma was not a succulent plant,
certainly not a Sarcostemma, an opinion which was further encouraged
by a letter he had received from Rajendra Lala Mitra. who had sug-

gested that Soma might have been used like hops as an ingredient in
the preparation of a kind of beer, and that the Vedic phrase ‘Soma
juice’ was merely a figure of speech. ‘The word “sweet,”’ Mitra wrote,
‘which has so much puzzled the learned Professor von Roth, may be
safely, nay appropriately, used in a poem in praise of bitter beer.' Watt
was therefore convinced that the Haoma plant was the Soma after
all. that ‘the dry and bitter twigs’ had been used to flavour some other
beverages, ‘much in the same way as Acacia bark is used throughout
India.’ In passing. Watt rejected a suggestion he had received from
Benjamin Lewis Rice that Soma might have been ‘sugarcane or some
species of sorghum’; he concluded that Periploca aphylia - the Haoma of
Dr. Dymock - was after all the most likely Soma plant, and he quoted
Baker’s description of Periploca aphylia as having ‘flowers fragrant,
eaten by natives, taste like raisins.’

Surgeon General Edward Balfour, in the third edition of his Cyclo-
pcedia of India, maintained that the Soma of Vedic times was a ‘distilled
alcoholic fluid’ made from the Sarcostemma brevistigma which flowers
during the rains in the Deccan. In the same article he referred to the
Soma juice as ‘a fermented liquor' and ‘this beer or wine’; he believed
that this liquid was used at all religious festivals and by the rishis at
their meals; and he attributed to Windischmann the suggestion that
the Soma plant may. have been the gogard tree.*

I. Surgeon General Edward Balfour; Tlie CyclopaJia of India and of Eastern and Southern arid. Coni-
meraal. Industriai, and Scientific; ProducU of the Mineral. V<gfM{.lr. and animdl Kingdoms. Useful Arts
and Manufactures (3«> edition). London. 1885. Vol. ni, p. 703.

PART TWO • CHAPTER V

In 1885 Julius Eggeling published the second volume of his trans-
lation of the Satapatha Brdhmana, wherein he observed that the exact
identity of the Soma plant was ‘still somewhat doubtful,’ but that
every probability seemed to favour the Sarcostemma brevistigma or
some other plant of the same genus. In answer to Watt’s suggestion
that the opinions of all the ‘Sanskrit authors’ be assembled for the
botanists to use, Eggeling wrote: ‘One might as well ask a Hebrew
scholar to give accurate descriptions of the "lily of the valley” to
enable the botanist to identify and classify the lovely flower which
delighted the heart of King Solomon. It is exactly the want of an
accurate knowledge of the nature of the Soma plant which prevents
Vedic scholars from being able to understand some of the few material
allusions to it.’* Undaunted, Aitchison wrote a letter to the Daily
News (13 March 1885) expressing his opinion that Soma was wine
after all. He modified this, however, when he returned from Afgha-
nistan and published The Botany of the Afghan Delimitation Commission,
wherein he informed his readers that the natives of North Baluchistan
call Periploca aphylla, Ephedra pachyclada, and another Ephedra 'Hum,
Huma, and Yehma.' He said that the natives eat the small red fruit of
these plants, but he hesitated to identify any of them with the original
Soma.* Finally, in 1888, Max Miiiler republished the Academy cor-
respondence in his Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryans^
with additional notes by Thiselton-Dyer, who supported Max Muller
by saying that Soma ‘was certainly in later times a fermented drink
made from grain, to which the Soma plant itself was only added as an
ingredient.’ Observing that, according to Roxburgh, the Sarcostemma
was ‘not necessarily nauseous,’ he nevertheless rejected it as a pos-
sibility for the Primitive Soma, rejecting as well Houtum-Schindler s
Hum (which he identified as Periploca aphylla) and his tamarisk-hke
plant (which he identified as Periploca hydaspidis, indistinguishable, he
said, from Ephedra foliata except when in flower). He concluded with a

I. Julius Eggeling: ‘Satapa.ha Brihmna, Sacred Book. ofthcEast. Volume n _

1. 1 . E. AitchisontTfte Botany of the Afshan Delimiution Commifswn.Transacuonsof the

London. 1887. p- na.

3, Max Muller: Collected Works. London. 1888. Vol. x. pp.i 2 a*i 42 -

120

THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

belief that the Sarcostemma was used. like hops, to flavour the more
effective ingredients’ of fermented grain, and that it was used not as a
ceremonial reminiscence of the grape' but in the absence of the origi-
nal Soma plant -the hop. George Watt concluded this episode with
his article on Ephedra in the Didiomirvo/ t/ie Economic Products o/Zndhi.
where he rejected, among other hypotheses, his own former sug-
gestion of the Afghan grape, though he could not resist noting that
wild grapes are called *Um, Umhiir in Kashmir.' He mentioned that
Ephedra vulgaris grew in the Himalayas, that Ep/iedra pac/iyc/iida and
E. joliara were found in Garhal and Afghanistan, that Periploca aphylhi
was used sometimes in Bombay, but that the Parsis /iiima was usually
an Ephedra. He said that putifeas (Basella spp.), when stripped of their
leaves, would resemble Sarcostemmas; that Wrnoiiia aMt/ielmiutica and
Pcederia feetida are known as somaraj in Hindustan; that Asclepiads
are emetics and are eaten by goats; and that Sarcostemma is rare but
Periploca plentiful in Central Asia. He rejected the Periploca. however,
on the grounds that the Arvans would have recognized it in India and
not have used the Sarcostemma in its place. And from all this he
concluded that Soma refers to ‘an early discovery of the art of fermen-
tation’ rather than to any plant in particular. All the sound and fury
had proven nothing, after all.

VI. THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

Still the battle raged, if more quietly, over the same ground. Adal-
bert Kuhn said that Haoma and Soma were separate plants resembling
each other in name and external appearance, the Soma of present-day
India being Surcostemmu hrevisugmu (an identification that he chose to
attribute to Roth), which was not however the original or at least the
only plant from which Soma was taken.* John Firminger Duthie then
added an odd piece of information that went unnoticed: The Marwara
people call the spiked grass known as Seturia glauca Soma.^ Darmeste-
ter in his translation of the Avesfn referred to Haoma as a yellow plant

1. George Wan: Dictionaty of iJie Bronomif ProJuco of India. Calcutta, 1890. ‘Ephedra’.

2. Adalbert Kuhn: Siadien. Giitcnloh. 1886. Volume i, p. 106.

3. John Firminger Duthie: The Fodder Grasses of North Indij, Roorkcc. 1888. p. i.j.

I2I

PART TWO • CHAPTER VI

with very close-set knots’ ‘like the Indian Soma’.* Monier-Williams’
Dictionary (1891) simply gave Sarcostemma hrevistigtna for Soma, and
J. Bornmuller mentioned that he had met with a Parsi priest in
Yezd carrying /mmfl.* At once he recognized it as Ephedra distachya, and
thus he had solved at last the problem mentioned to him first by Max

Fig. 4. 'Haoma' of the Persians. As pictured in James Darmesteter’s
translation of the Avesta, 1890-1892. Said to be life-size.

Miiller in Oxford. He added that the plant grew all over Central Asia
and that large quantities of it were dried and sent from Persia to
Bombay every year.

Alfred Hillebrandt then produced his extensive summary of the
recent Soma theories and introduced his own famous theory that
Soma was the moon throughout the RgVeda. He explained that con-
temporary Soma plants were probably not the same as the original,
that substitutes had been used as soon as the Aryans left their home-
land in the Sindh, and that the Vedas themselves were self-contra-
dictory, since they had been compiled in various times and places.^
He pointed out that Soma was not a blossoming plant and therefore
could not be hops as Max Muller had suggested; that Soma had a red
stalk and reddish brown sap; and that the epithet 'with hanging
branches’ (naicdsdkhdy probably referred to the nyagrodha (Ficus reli-
giosa) which was an important substitute. In fact, he concluded, even

I. Vide supra, pp. 59^- 1 u * *

1. James Darmesteter: Avesta, (ransladon into French, Paris, 1890-189^; introduedon, p. xv. e gives

a picture of the plant as well (Wde fig. 4)*

3. J, Bornmuller: ‘Reisebriefe aus Persien/ in MilUilunsen des ThUringischen Batanischen Verlags, i 93.
p. 42.

4. Alfred Hillebrandt: Vedisehe Mythchgie, Breslau, 1891. Vol. f, pp-

5. This word, however, occurs only once in the RgVeda {m 53*^) and its meaning is uncertain.
Grassmann chinks that it may refer to the name of a sage.

122

THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

at the time of the RgVeda itself, various plants were already in use.
and he cited Burnell’s evidence that different Somas were used simul-
taneously in different parts of India.

Hermann Oldenberg devised a new theory, suggesting that the ori-
ginal Soma was itself a substitute, not for wine but for the Indo-Euro-
pean honey drink, mead or hydromel.* Of course it had long been
recognized that the Sanskrit indd/iu. the Greek (isD-u, and English mead
were cognate, and that iim'd/m was applied to Soma in the RgVeda
(whence all the trouble over the bitterness of Sarcostemma). but
iiidd/in was a general term applied to milk and rain as well as to Soma,
and the simple identification of Soma with infl'd/m had still left open
the botanical identification of Soma as a plant whose sap was known as
honey. Oldenberg, however, avoided this difficulty by postulating
mead as a forerunner and Soma as a later substitute; this distracted
attention from the Soma plant itself (since it was no longer to be
regarded as the original, the Ur-plant, that everyone sought) but it
did not, of course, add anything at all to what was known about the
Indian Soma.

This theory was to become well known and widely accepted, but it
had little immediate impact. Edmund Hardy maintained that Soma
was neither any form of honey nor stird but most probably Sarcosteni-
ma brevistigma after all.* Vedic scholars generally clung to the Asclepiad
hypothesis^ or they hazarded even less: P. Regnaud called Soma ‘une
liqueur enivrante,’ and cautioned against taking the Vedic texts
literally when they spoke metaphorically.'* Rustomjee Naserwanyil
Khory covered some very old ground by considering a Brdhmana sub-
stitute to be the original Soma;* he identified Soma (soniavalli in
Sanskrit, amrtaval/i in Bengali) as a climbing shrub called Tinospora
cordifolia, the extract of which (called gtirjo, gilo, etc.) is used as an
aphrodisiac, a cure for gonorrhea, and a treatment for urinary diseases.

1. Hermann Oldenberg: Die Religion da Veda, Berlin. 1894, pp. 366 ff.

2. Edmund Hardy: Die Vedische-Brahmanische Periode, Munster. 1893, pp. 152-153.

3.2cnaidc A. Ragozin: Vedic India, London. 1895. p. i 7 i; W. Caland: Aliindwche Zauberritual.
Amsterdam. 1900. p. x88.

4. P. Regnaud: ‘Remarques sur Ic IXime MandaU du pig Veda/ Re\ne de VHistoire Religieuse, xun,

I902» pp. 308-313.

5. Rustomjee Naserwanyil Khory: Materia Medica cf India and their Therapeutics, Bombay, 1903.

1^3

PART TWO • CHAPTER VI

Christian Bartholoma; in his famous Alliramsches Worierhucli (1904)
described Haoma as a plant used in medicine, for magic, and as an
alcoholic drink, but he retrained from identifying the plant. W.W'^
\\ ilson thought Soma was the (Latin /userpitiinji’) mentioned

Fig. 5. ionij’. .As pictured in Zen.iidc A. Ragozin: Wdic India. New Aork, 1895.

in a fragment of Aleman as a plant that has wonderful properties,
grows on mountains, is golden, and is plucked by birds.' He supported
this argument with complex Indo-European linguistics but was cau-
tious enough to note: ‘It is not improbable that even at the time of the
\'edas. use was made of more than one kind of plant. W. Caland and

I. W. W. Wilson: ‘The Soma offering in a fragment of -Alkman,’ Amfrkanjt^umal c/PhiMcgy. No. 30.
1906. pp. 188-195. Roih in his 1884 essay had suggested that Soma in India had occupic a sacre

position similar to that held by the now c.xtinct 01X910V plant of .■\ncicni Greece, but c a not

considered ihc two plants identical.

124

THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

\ ictor Henry considered che question of the identification ot Soma
insoluble.' Henry maintained that the Indo-Aryans had imported
Soma ever since they entered the area of Northwest India, and chat
the present-day Soma of India did not correspond to the Vedic de-
scriptions of its taste or characteristics.* Still the old definitions per-
sisted: K. L. Bhishagratna in his 1907 edition ol the Siisriim defined
seijiiiltKa as Siircastemiiiii breristi^ma and .semanyi as \ eriioniti (iiit/ie/-
iHuiIica. Maurice Bloomfield referred to Soma merely as ‘an intoxicat-
ing drink . . . regarded as the tipple of the gods.’^ and A. A. Macdon-
ell and A. B. Keith concluded that the RgVeda descriptions were
‘inadequate to identify the plant ... It is very probable that the plant
cannot now be identified.’-* Then Hermann Brunnhofer came forward
to defend Lagarde’s ‘mountain rue’ (originally Sir William Jones s
theory, though Lagarde did not say so and probably did not know ot

Jones’s opinion). Brunnhoter maintained that Lagarde had already
solved the Soma question forty years previously, ‘though the Vedists
still ignore him.’* He elaborated upon Lagarde’s theory by mentioning
Pliny’s description of a plant known as possessing char-

acteristics that suggested a kind of rue to Brunnhofer.* He then called
attention to che RgVedic verse (iv 3’'). perhaps an oblique reference
to Soma, that speaks of a black cow giving white milk; Brunnhofer
considered this a perfect description of the pwXy, a dark plant with
white milk.

In 1911 Carl Hartwich published Die menschlichen Genussmittel, in
which he discussed various forms of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs.’ He
included ‘Soma - Haoma’ in his study, but was uneasy about its status
as a drug or stimulant (‘Genussinitfel’); having described various ac-

1. W, Co land and Victor Henry: Paris, 1906-7, p. 471.

2. Vicior Hcnr)': Sona et Haoma, Paris, 1907, p. 52.

Maurice Bloomfield: The Religion of the Veda, New York, 190$, p. 145.

4. Arthur Anthony Macdonell and Arthur Dcrricdale Keith: Vedic Index, London, 1912, Vol. 11, p. 475.

5. Hermann Bninnhofer: Arische Bern, 1910, p. 297.

6 . Ibid., p. 300. The quotation from Pliny (Hisf^ria Ndtur<ili5 27.28.11) merely says that of several
plants bearing the name of a|ji^poa(a. one has leaves around the bottom of the stem resembling
those of rue (pliis ruroenrcd tmum C4u(m). Elsewhere (Historifl N<ttHr4lis 14.40), Pliny speaks of apt-
Ppoo(z as a kind of grape.

7* C. Hartwich: Die mcfuriiliclicn Genussmituf, Leipzig, 1911, p. 806 If.

125

PART TWO • CHAPTER VI

cepted botanical 'Sonias’ (Stircostemma hrevistigma, Periploca aphylla,
Basella cordifolia, etc.), he went on to say: ‘Although all of these have
been tested - though not altogether thoroughly - none of them is
known to have stimulating or sedative or other characteristics which
could mark it as a drug or stimulant.’ He therefore considered it pos-
sible that they might have been used as supplements, perhaps as
spices, to the other known ingredients of the Soma drink (meal, milk,
and whey) in which alcohol might have been produced.* The possi-
bility that Soma might have been some other plant which did have
‘stimulating or sedative characteristics’ does not seem to have occur-
red to him. though he granted that the Persians used for their Haoma
a different plant {Ephedra vulgaris) containing a drug (ephedrine)
which caused dilation of the pupil.* One of the plants that Harnvich
gave as an alleged Soma was Vitex negiindo, whose bitter leaves and
root were used against fever. Since the plant was originally native to
tropical America, Hartwich dismissed it as a possible Soma, but ob-
served in conclusion that in India it was known as Indrahasta and
Indrasurd ('the hand of Indra’ and ‘the wine of Indra’).’ It may be that
this association with Indra - together with Indra’s fondness for Soma
(to which Hartwich refers) - recommended the Vitex negundo to
Hartwich. for he gives no Sanskrit names for any of the other plants he
mentions. Yet in this context it is surprising that he did not mention
Indrdsana (‘the food of Indra’)^ which was a common name for hemp,
Cannabis saliva, the leaves of which were dried and chewed, supplying
just the GeMussmitte/ that Hartwich seemed to seek.

Keith reassembled the old evidence but still considered the Soma
problem insoluble,® and L. H. Mills produced an odd throwback in
which he insisted that Haoma and Soma grew independently from the

I. Hartwich, op. at, p. 809
1. Ibid., p. 808.

3. JndrasuTd (also known as Indrasurasa and Indrasurisa) is mentioned in the Aimrohld, the SuSnita
Samhitd, and the ^bdakalpadruma, but is nowhere associated vdih Soma.

4. IndTStana as a name for hemp (perhaps by confusion with Indra-iana. which would mean t e
hemp of Indra) is mentioned in the Sabdamdld (quoted in the Udokalpadruma) and appears m its

prakrit form — Indrdsana — in Dhurtasamd^ama 90.8. j • «

5. A. B. Keith: The Taittinya Samhitd, Har%afd Oriental Scries, Volumes 18 and 19, 19 i 4 . imroduciJon

and p. 119.

126

THE TL'RN OF THE CENTURY

same original, and that ‘nothing humorous, let us remember, attached
to the idea of [alcoholic] stimulus at first in those early days’.' The
Oxford History oflndia^ merely observed that the Parsis say that Soma
is Asclepias, and E. W. Hopkins concurred but questioned whether
this was the plant referred to in the Vedas, the Avesta, and Plutarch,
suggesting that the names might have been retained when substitutes
for the plant were used.' Chapman Cohen stated without reference or
explanation his belief that the Soma drink ‘is prepared from the
flower of the lotus.’ an idea that was bound to occur to someone
sooner or later, in view of the Odyssey tradition of the lotus-eaters and
the sanctity of the lotus in India, but which seems to have attracted
no supporters after this."* E. B. Havell then suggested that Soma w'as
E/eusine corocana or rJgi, the common millet, an idea that he sup-
ported on the basis of Vedic characteristics (shaped like udders, tawny,
growing in the mountains) and the ^atapatha Brdhmam reference to
dur^’^^ and fcusti as substitutes, both of which resemble rdgi, ‘the com-
mon millet still used in the Eastern Himalayas for making the intoxic-
ating drink called He mentioned that the Brahmans, while

preparing Soma, ‘sang a song which reminds one of a good old Aryan
sailors’ chantey, with a refrain, “Flow. Indu, flow for Indra”.’* Havell
admitted that, ‘whether fermentation took place before or after it
was so used is a point which is not very clear,’ but he was clear on its
history: ragt had been the Aryans’ principal food and drink until
they moved to the Ganges Valley and switched to rice, ‘and, perhaps
under the influence of Buddhism, gradually gave up intoxicating
liquors, or “went dry”.’ Then they used substitutes for the rdgi-SomtJ,
forgot its name and retained contact with it only as the food of the
lowest caste, the Sudras. Havell said that Marua when kept too long
is nauseating and evil-smelling, in keeping with certain descriptions of

1. L. H. Mills: The Avestic H(d)oma and the Vedic Soma/ No. S, 1916. p. ^15.

2. Vincent Smith: Oxford History of India, 1919. p. 23.

3. E.W. Hopkins: ‘Soma/ in Hastings* Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. 11, Edinburgh. 1920,
p. 685.

4. Chapman Cohen: Kcligion and Sax, Edinburgh* 1919. p. 57.

5. E. B. Havell: ‘What is Soma?’, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1910, pp. 349 ff.

RgVeda u 113.

127

PART TWO - CHAPTER VII

Soma, but when fresh 'it is an exhilarating drink that easily intoxi-
cates the uninitiated.’ He then administered the coup-de-grace: the
Indo-European myth of the bringing of Soma from heaven by an
eagle is explained by the simple fact that birds lined their nests with
rdgi. One would hardly think that this argument merited rebuttal, but
it did in fact stimulate an answer that was to become the last signi-
ficant theory of Soma: Mukherjee’s theory that Soma was hemp.
Cannabis saliva (= Cannabis indica), known to the initiate as bhang
(the Hindi term derived from Sanskrit bhaiigd, m., or bhangd, {.),
ganja, hashish, marijuana, or pot.

VII. MUKHERJEE AND THE BHANG THEORY

Braja Lai Mukherjee* picked unlikely grounds on which to challenge
Havell's flimsy theory, which he said was based upon considerations
'which may be supplemented by others of a more important char-
acter,’ e.g., that there was no reference to cows’ udders in the Rg
Veda.* He then supplied an elaborate 25-point argument to show that
Soma was in fact not Eleiisine coracana but bhang: ^atapatha Brdhmana
5.1. 1. 12 says that Soma is u^dnd'd Soma was ‘originally amongst the
Kiratas,’ a mountain tribe ; amongst the Kiratas, u and a were articular
prefixes; therefore usdnd = sana;iana is hemp; the Tanguts call hemp
by the name dschoma; hemp = Greek kanna [sic] = Sanskrit sana; the
Tibetan word for hemp is somaratsa ; the preparation of Soma is similar
to that of bhang: the deity Mahadeva ( 5 iva) is a lover of bhang; bhang
is used by the modern representatives of the Vedic people in the
celebration of worship of the goddess Durga, which is a Soma sacrifice.^
The final link in the argument is this: 'Bhang is sacred to Hindus by
tradition.’ In sum. 'May we not conclude that the weight of evidence
is in favour of the identification of Soma with Cannabis (bhang)? This
strange argument, combining linguistic reasoning with the purest

I. Braja Lai Mukherjee: 'The Soma Plant.' Jourruil cf the Royal Asiatic Society. 1921. p. 241.

1. This is untrue. ViVie ruprd. p. 43- ... ..

3, This verse does not refer to Soma at all, but verses 3-4.3-*3 4.2.5-t5 of the Ma yan ina

Sion of the ^'atapatha Brdhmana speak of a plant called uiarti. from which Soma is made.

4. The Durga celebration, the use of bhang, and the tradition that Siva uses bhang, are aU late cha-

raccerisdes of Bengal ^aivism.

128

MUKHERJEE AND THE BHANG THEORY

twaddle, was further developed by Mukherjee in his book, The Soma
Plant,‘ which was reviewed in a brief paragraph by L. D. Barnett, who
said blandly that Mukherjee made out a good but not always convinc-

ing case for hemp as Somad

Sir Charles Eliot expressed 'considerable doubt that Soma could be
identified. He said it was a plant with 'yellow juice of a strong smell,
fiery taste, and intoxicating properties,' and that the Parsis of Yezd
and Kerman used Asclepiads.^ N. B. Pavgee rebutted Havell with-
out proposing any alternative, using the argument merely as a foil
for his own hypothesis - that Soma was indigenous to the Sapta-
sindhu region (i.e.. India proper) and was not 'brought in’ by 'Aryans.'

The Indo-Arvans were autochthonous in India, he wrote, and ‘had

not immigrated’; the Iranian Soma is. of course, spurious, but kept the
old name. Soma could not be any kind of liquor, for liquor is an evil,
while Soma - the true Soma - was ‘exhilarating yet slightly intoxicat-
ing’ and ‘gave moral elevation’. Pavgee docs not explain how this was
done, nor does he identify the Soma plant."*

In 19Z2 Jakob Wilhelm Hauer published a work that lent a kind of
peripheral support to the bhang theory, for he referred to the Soma
cult as the most highly developed form of the use of narcotics to in-
duce ecstasy, calling particular attention to the late Vedic hymn (x 136)
that describes a long-haired sage who drinks poison with Rudra.*
Hauer believed that Soma was the most important toxic means of
inducing ecstasy, but not the only such means, and he suggested that
the Vedic references might be traces of a primitive ecstatic practice of
hallucination caused by certain plants.* Whether these ‘plants’ were
Sarcostemmas, Afghan grapes, or hemp, Hauer neglects to say, but
his final remark is more suggestive of a hallucinogenic plant than of
anything else: opium is no longer used in a religious context, but
every time we light up a good cigar we experience a faint reflection

t. Braja Lai Mukherjee: The Soma Plant, Calcutta. 1912.

а. L. D. Barnett: Review in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1923. p. 437.

Sir Charles Eliot: Hindiitsm and Biidtlhism. London. 1921. Vol. 1. p. 69.

4 - N. B. Pavgee: The indigenous far-famed Soma and the Aryan Au(hcichiht?nes in /ndin. Poona. 1921. and
'Soma juke is not liquor.* Third Oriental Conference, 1924. pp. 70-79.

5. Jakob Wilhelm Hauer: Die AnJ^nge der Yogapraxis im Allen tndien, Berlin. 1922, p. 137.

б. Ibid., pp. 57, 59. 61.

129

PART TWO • CHAPTER VTII

of the splendour of the rapture of the primeval ecstatic’ Though this
ancient Yogic cult is clearly non-Vedic. presumably pre-Vedic, Hauer
does not say whether he believes the Soma plant to have been the
same as the drug of the primeval ecstatic’, or perhaps a substitute
for it. Yet his remarks are provocative in the context of the search for
a hallucinogenic Soma plant.

VIII. LATER RESEARCHES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

In 1924. Gilbert Slater advanced a novel hypothesis: that amrta
(Soma) was Egyptian beer, a fermentation of date juice or palmyra
palm or coconut palm, brought to India from Mesopotamia.* This
theory was noted but not accepted. Georges Dumezil maintained that
Soma was native to India, and that it was the Indian substitute for the
Indo-European ‘sacred barley beer’ rather than for the Indo-European
mead that Oldenberg had postulated.’ The beer was replaced by
wine in Greece and by Soma in India, and the one word for this beer, or
for a beverage with a cereal base which must have preceded it, was the
sacred ritual name: ambrosia, the Greek and the Sanskrit

amrta, the elixir of immortality. Barley itself must have been Indo-
European, as the linguistic evidence indicates: Greek Latin

hordeum, Armenian gari, and various Celtic words for beer, e.g., cervesia
(Gallic) and cuirm (Irish). As for the sacred position of barley in India,
Dumezil referred to the tradition that barley (yava) had stayed with
the gods when all the other plants had left them, thus enabling the
gods to conquer their enemies.^ The Mahdbhdrata relates that the
gods once churned the ocean in order to obtain the amrta, but a ter-
rible poison emerged and would have destroyed them all had Siva
not swallowed it and saved them; in the light of Dumezil s theory
that the amrta is barley beer, this myth is an expression of excessive
fermentation that must be arrested.*

1. Hauer, cit., p. 62.

2. Gilbert Slater: The Dravidian EleTnenl itt Indian Culture. London. I9i4. P 78.

3. Georges Dumezil: ‘Le Fesiin d immortaliti’. Annates du Musie Guimet. No. 34. I9i4. P- »79-
4.Satapathd Brdhmana, 3.6.1. 8>9.

5. Dum^il, op. cit., p. 2$5«

130

later researches

Louis Lewin’s P/miiMstica; Narcotic and Sinim/rtting Drugs included
Soma in the chapter on alcohol rather than narcotics, mentioning
Periploca aphylla, Sarcostemma brevistigma. Setaria glaiica. and £p/iedrii
vuigdris as plants that had been identified with Soma, but he added:
‘None of these plants is able to give rise to such effects as have been
attributed to Soma. ... 1 regard Soma as a very strong alcoholic beve-
rage obtained by fermentation of a plant.’’ Elsewhere he suggested
that the yogis might have used some sort of narcotic such as Indian
hemp or scopolamine, but he did not identify this practice with the
cult of Soma.*

The Sarcostemma theory returned yet again, this time in a paper by
L. L. Uhl. who maintained that Sarcostemma, and not Ephedra, was
the original Soma, saying that he had found Sdrcosteinnm trevistigdid
frequently at latitude 15° in South India, where it is called Soma and is
used in sacrifices.^ Arthur Berriedale Keith c.xpressed the view that
the Soma problem, though insoluble, had led to ‘interesting investi-
gations. but to no sure result, and the only thing certain is that the
plant, which has been used in modern India as the Soma plant, is one
which would not be considered by modern tastes as at all pleasant in
the form of pressed juice mixed with water.’* Then, somewhat echoing
de Gubernatis’ reasoning. Keith went on to say that although one can’t
be sure what was pleasant to a Vedic Indian, nevertheless it is likely
that ‘the drink was originally a pleasant one; in the course of time the
long distance from which the shoots had to be brought may easily
have made it less attractive, as it certainly encouraged the use of
various substitutes described in the ritual text books.’ Keith agreed
with Hauer’s suggestion that RgVeda x 136 might be a reference to
the use ‘of some poison to produce exhilaration or hypnosis,’* relating

I. Louis Le\^in: Phantastica: die betdubenden und erregenden Genui5mitr«f. Leipzig. 1924; published in
London, isPhantastica: Narcotic drcdStimuldtirtg Drugs, from which I dec che above information^
p. x6i» note.

i.lbid., p. ti 7 .

3. L. L. Uhl: 'A conenbution towards the idencLficacion of the Soma plane of Vedic times/ in Journal of
the American Onentdl Society, No. 45, 1925, p. 351,

4 * A. B. Kdth: Religion and Philosophy of the Vedas and Vpanishads, Harvard Oriental Scries, Vol-
umes 31-2, 1915, pp, 171, 183.4, 482.

5 > Ibid., p. 402.

I31

PART TWO • CHAPTER VIII

this to a verse about hemp in the Atbarvaveda,' but not to Soma.
Elsewhere he observ'ed that the Avesta does not call Haoma mead,
and suggested that mead was the Indo-European drink and that Soma
was identified with it when Soma was discovered, in India, and found
to produce 'a juice pleasant to drink or at least intoxicating.’*

In 1926 G. Jouveau-Dubreuil wrote an article suggesting that Soma
was none other than a species of Asclepias after all.^ He had discovered
that the Nambudri Brahmans (on the Malabar coast, in Kerala) of
Taliparamba, who practiced ‘pure Vedic ceremonies,’ sent to a Raja
in Kollangod at the foot of the high mountains to obtain their Soma
plant, a leafless, milky, green creeper that was an Asclepiad. P/hs ga
change . . . Yet neither the Sarcostemma theory nor the theory that
Sarcostemma was merely a substitute was incompatible with the
beer theory of Max Muller and Mitra (for the beer could be made
with the Sarcostemma or the plant for which it was a substitute), nor
were these or the wine theory incompatible with Oldenberg’s mead
theory (for the mead could have been replaced by any of the above in
India), and so the theories continued to live side by side. Otto Schrader
and A. Nehring maintained that the Indo-European honey was re-
placed by the Soma plant -still called ntddhu- in Aryan times, while
wine and beer were later substituted for it throughout Europe.^
P. V. Kane was unconvinced by any of the theories, but mentioned
that in the Deccan a plant called rdnsera was used as a substitute for
Soma.*

In 1931 Sir Aurel Stein published a paper entitled, ‘On the Ephedra,
the Hum Plant, and the Soma,’* describing a cemetery in Central
Asia filled with packets of Ephedra twigs. Recalling the evidence for
Ephedra as Haoma and Soma and quoting Wellcome’s Excerpta Thera-

1. AthaTvaveda, cd. Roth and Whitney, Berlin, 1855, IV.5.

2. Keith, op. df., p. 172.

3. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil: •Soma’, cranslatcd by Sir R. Temple in the Indian Antiquary. No. 55 . 1926.
p . 176.

4. Otto Schrader and A. Nehring: Rejileriken der Indogermanischen AJtrrtHmrfcimde. Berlin, i9i9.
Vo), n, p. 139.

5. P. V. Kane: History of Dhormoidstra, 1930*62, Vo), n, part 2, chap. 33 i PP* c l t r

6. Sir Aurel Stein: 'On the Ephedra, the Hum Plant, and the Soma.’ Bulletin of the London School oj

Oriental Studies » 61 1, 1931, pp. 501 ff.

132

LATER RESEARCHES

peutiCii for evidence that the Chinese use an Ephedra called Ma-ZiiuiHg
to get an alkaloid drug (ephedrine), he then followed this with the
assertion that Ephedra could not have been the original Soma, tor it
was bitter and Soma sweet, and Ephedra was not mountainous. He
then concluded: 'The only result of these inquiries has been to direct
nty attention more closely to . . . the wild rhubarb.’ which grows in
the mountains, has a fleshy stalk, and can be made into rhubarb wine,
though Stein admits that the Indians do not do so.' Granting that the
Vedic descriptions of the Soma plant could apply to Asclepias or
rhubarb -or to anything else, for that matter -Stein nevertheless
maintained that the descriptions of the Soma juice best applied to
rhubarb. He added that the juice might be mixed with milk to fa-
cilitate fermentation, ‘which alone could endow a juice like that
obtained from the rhubarb with the exhilarating and exciting effect so
clearly indicated in the Vedic hymns.’*

Perhaps the strangest episode in the history of Soma research came
io 1933. with a truly Twentieth Century theory of Soma. Dr. Paul
Lindner of Berlin published an article entitled. ‘The Secret of Soma'.^
He referred to a statement by E. Hubers that Soma was merely a
decoction of barley or millet, into which the juice of the Soma plant
had been added as a catalyst for fermentation (Gtirungserreger). though
it was unclear what kind of fermentation took place.^ Lindner’s own
studies of the micro-organisms of the Agave in Mexico, particularly of
Thermohacteriiim mobile, had brought him to the conclusion that yeast
played only a secondary role in the fermentation, after the fermen-
tation-bacteria had prepared the field. He went on to say that Thermo-
bacterium mobile can produce alcohol in grapes and in cane sugar, and
concluded that since the ‘purity of fermentation’ took precedence
over the material fermented, even S<ircosfei»ni<i trevistigjnu, Calotropis
gigantea, or Ephedra distachya, which had been considered as ‘the holy

I. Sir Aurel noted that Albert Regel had suggested rhubarb in i88j. Vide supra, p. 1 14,

X Stein, op, cit., p. 513.

Paul Lindner: *Das Geheimnis um Soma/ jmd Foruchrilte. No. 5, 1933, p. 65.

4- E. Hubers: 'Schildeningen der Bierbercitung im femen Osicn/ in Alillcilimgen dor Gesellschaft fUr

Bihhographie und Geschichudes Brauwosais. Lindner also died J. Arnolds' Origin and History of Beer and
Brewing.

133

PART TWO • CHAPTER VIII

Soma plant,’ might have yielded the juice ‘which was enjoyed by
young and old.’ Lindner was convinced that Tbermobacterium mobile
was the most important fermenting agent of the tropics, and that the
songs of praise to Soma really must have been ‘dedicated to this
Bacterium.’ He suggested that the tropical explorers try ‘TM’ in the
juice of the Indian butter tree. Bassia latifolia, or the Ceylonese cowtree,
Gymnema lactiferum, which have milky saps, the former sweet, the
latter bitter. When Lindner himself had tried a spoonful of TM it had
resulted in ‘undiminished feeling of well-being and almost odourless
excrement.’* Dr. Leo Kaps had treated patients in the Wilheminenspi-
tal in Vienna with TM beer and obtained extraordinary results, and a
Swedish firm and a Viennese brewery’ were about to produce a TM
beer with small alcoholic content. I have found no evidence that
Soma-TM-beer was in fact manufactured nor any further reference to
the Lindner theory after this initial publication.

An original and. in retrospect, provocative contribution to the ar-
gument was made in 1936 by Philippe de Felice.* He was unable to
identify Soma but he described the plant in terms that seem re-
markably up-to-date: he would probably have called Soma an ‘hal-
lucinogen’, had the word existed. He deduced from the record that
Sarcostemma brevistigma and similar plants had ser\^ed to replace Soma
toward the end of the Vedic period, when the Indo-Iranians in emi-
gration were forced to use new drugs in place of Soma. Alcoholic
drinks such as surd, he thought, might also have come to be used.
Then he continues:

Instead of indulging in suppositions that no document supports,
ought we not rather to ask ourselves whether, to arrive at the drink
that plunged them into ecstasy, the ancient Indo-Iranians did not
have recourse, like so many other primitive peoples, to some plant
whose toxic properties they had discovered? This is what the examin-
ation of the texts seems to make clear. The liquor about which they
speak is always drawn from a plant. This plant grows on the
mountains which, as time passes, seem to become more and more

1. 'unverminderus WcMbeJinden undfast geruchlose Exkrematu.’

2. Philippe de Filice : Poisms Ivresses Dirines: Essai sur quelques formes wJihTeures e y

Paris» 1936, pp. 265-166.

134

LATER RESEARCHES

distant, more and more inaccessible.' What serves to produce the
mystical potion is neither the leaves nor the fruit, but always the
stems. The juice is cither red or clear yellow. It must be filtered or
decanted, to eliminate certain elements that are disturbing or that
perhaps risk rendering it too to.xic. Sometimes it has a bad taste or
even smacks of carrion: thus it is certainly not for pleasure that one
drinks it. The inebriation that it provokes can present grave dangers:
the spirit wanders, the drink can lead even to madness. It happens
sometimes that the inebriation is accompanied by organic distur-
bances. which are in reality symptoms of an acute intoxication.

Men know and fear the baleful effects of the drug. and. though he
was a god. Indra himself did not escape them, since one day the Soma
came forth from every opening in his body. This emeto-cathartic
effect is confirmed in an old book of Hindu medicine. . . .

One may conclude from all this, it seems to us. that from the most
remote antiquity the Indo-Iranians. when they were still dwelling
together in their original home, possessed a special beverage reserved
exclusively for the ceremonies of their religion and drawn from a
toxic plant. The information that we possess about this plant
unfortunately does not permit us to determine the species; but it
is enough for us to classify it as among the toxic plants the use of
which is widespread, for reasons of a mystical nature, in all parts of
the world.

De Felice’s reference to the emeto-cathartic effect of Soma is to the
epithet vdiHauf in the Ayurx'edic description and to the Brdhmam
story in which Soma injured Indra and flowed from his mouth and
‘all the openings of his vital airs, and from his urinary tract’.*
Meanwhile the more conventional line of Vedic studies continued.
L. van Itallie published an article in Dutch investigating the Sarcostem-
ma acidum stalks in the light of the Soma plant; he described acids and
alkaloids, carbohydrates and phytosterins, tannic acids and glycosides,
but drew no new conclusions.’ Johannes Hertel pointed out that there

1. The Indo- Aryans, spreading out east and south from the Indus Valley, were finding themselves
increasingly remote from the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas. W.D.OT.
i.hatapatha Brahmana 1.6.3. 1*7.

3.L. van Itallie, •Somd-Heerme. dc heilige plant der Indiers en dcr Perzen/ Natuurwftmschapp^Ujk
tijdsckrift No. 19 (i 937 ). pp. i and 9-11.

135

PART TWO . CHAPTER VIII

were many different kinds of Soma which scientific botany was unable
to distinguish.’ Henrik Nyberg referred to Soma-Haoma as an intox-
icating drink made from a plant no longer identifiable, but he con-
tributed obliquely to the bhang theory’ with his suggestion that Zo-
roaster was a shaman who drugged himself with hemp.* Nyberg
himself, however, distinguished clearly between Haoma and hemp as
plants, explaining Zoroaster’s aversion to Haoma in the light of the
belief that Haoma-drinking induced a state of intoxication (Riimc/t)
rather than ecstasy.^ Joges Candra Roy then developed Mukherjee’s
bhang hypothesis, adding to the original argument the facts that Soma
is actually called bhang in the RgVeda;^ that Soma is called a creeper
nowhere in the RgVeda, but rather an herb (osadhi), a term which
could apply to h/irtug; and finally that the Soma sacrifice ‘was a feast
and the drink added hilarity; bhang has been in use on similar oc-
casions.’® Delli Roman Regni repeated the argument that Soma was
not a fermented liquor but rather a non-alcoholic ‘syrup-like thing,

I. Johannes Hcrtcl: ‘Das Indogcrmanische Ncujahrsopfcf im Veda/ in Miftnlun|en der S^chsischen
Akadfmie dtr Wissensekafun, Vol. 90, 1938, p. 83.

z. Henrik SamncI Nyberg: Die ReUgicnen des Altai Irans, Leipzig, 1938. pp. 177. 190. 290 and 341. He
cites several Avesian references 10 hemp, among them Ytiit I3-I24t Vaididad 15.14, Vendidad 1910,
Yasna 44,10, and Vendtddd 19.41. W. B. Henning rebutted this argument in his Zoroaster: PoMcian
or Witch-Doctor^, Oxford. 1951; he considered Nybergs thcor)' one to be rejected ‘without further
consideration ... if one reflects on the effects of hemp, the physical, mental and moral deterioration
it brings/ and he maintained that the Avcscan citations, ‘if correctly interpreted, can at the most scn'c
to show that they cultivated hemp, possibly for the purpose for which hemp is cultivated all the
world over — i.e., to obtain its fibre/

3. Nyberg. op. eft., p. 188.

4. RgVeda IX Bhangd here seems to be an epithet meaning ‘intoxicating (from bhahj, to break,

i.e.. to disrupt the senses), but the reading occun only once and is uncertain. Macdonell suggests
that the word bhangd first applied to Soma, meaning ‘intoxicating/ and then came to designate
hemp {Vedic Index. Volume n. p. 93 )- Otto Schrader suggesti that bhang ‘was originally prized for
the intoucating effects of its decoctions' (Prchisieric of the Aryan Peoples, translated from

the German and published in London, 1890. p. 299 ). but after the one questionable Vedic occurrence.
bhanga appears in classical Sanskrit several times only to designate the plant, with no reference to any
narcotic effects. The 8th century- A. D. ’Sdrngadhara Samliiui (Bombay 1888: i.4.!9) is the

source that considers bfi4ngJadrug:it likens it to 'the saliva of a snake, i.e.,opium(pfifn<i«M isamH
bhavam) and the commentator adds that the effect is like that of inebriating liquor {madyav^aya\at .
The Bbdvaprakdia (Chowkhamba edition, i.i) refen to bJiaiigd (matulSni) as into.xicating an
hallucination (mokti) and slow speech (mandavdky. and the DhflnvanMriya-nigkflnm desenbes bhanga
as intoxicating, bitter, stimulating talk, inducing sleep, and producing hallucinations.

5. Joges Candra Roy: 'The Soma Plant,’ Indian Historical Quarterly. No. 15. June W 9 . PP- ^ 97 - ■

6 . Delli Roman Regni: 'The control of liquor in Andcnt India.' Sew Rmw. Calcutta, ove

1940. P« 381.

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LATER RESEARCHES

and CKunham Raja maintained that, according to both the Vedas
and the Avesta. Soma produced happiness (mdda) while siini produced
evil intoxication (diirmddu) and that Soma was a creeper with leaves,
no longer available. Soma, he reasoned, had not time to ferment and
if it had been an alcoholic drink the Indians would have substituted for
it another alcoholic drink when it became unavailable, instead of the
known non-alcoholic substitutes that they in fact used.' ^et the wine
hypothesis - dead and killed again so often - reappeared in Ernst
Herzfeld’s Zoroaster and his World.* where he remarked that in 1931
he had received a letter from a New York gentleman who believed
that a plant growing only in Persepolis - the Stilvid persepolitana - was
the Haoma, but that nothing had ever come of this communication.
Herzfeld maintained that Soma must be a fermentation from grapes;
that means ‘shoot, tendril, or bunch of grapes ; that the god
Homa is the Aryan Dionysos; and that ‘to thus define homa means to
explain how wine [cultivated all over Iran before the advent of the
Aryans and after] could remain unknown to the Avesta, and how the
cultivation of [common in the Avesta] could disappear in Iran
long before the Arab conquest. The solution is evident: homa is vine,
wine.’* He adds that Haoma could not possibly be Witing because ‘the
use of hashish in Zoroaster's time is an imagination. The mysterious
homa is wine, a reality . . . Nothing is known of the use of hemp as a
narcotic prior to the Arsacid period.'*

I. C. Kunham Raja: * Was Soma an inioiicating drink of the People?", Adyar Library BulUihi, No. lo,
pp. 90-105.

a. Ernst Herzfeld: Zarcasur and his World. Princeton, 1947, Volume n. pp. 543 (T.

3. Bracketed material appean elsewhere in Herzfeld.

4 - The first certain European reference to the use of hemp as a drug in India is in Garda d’Orta's
record of a conversation with the Sultan Badar in Goa in 1563. The Sultan confessed that whenever
in the night he had a desire to visit Portugal and Turkey and Arabia, 'all he had to do was to
eat a little banguc../ In 1676 Hcnrich van Rheede (van Draakenstein). the governor of Malabar,
published his Hartus Indicus Malabaricus in Amsterdam (written in Latin and Dutch), in which he
called attention to a plant named bangi that was smoked like tobacco and caused inebriation (Vol, 10,
p. 67). George Everhard Rumph in 1755 described at length. In Latin, the effect of the Cannabis
sativa (also known as gtnji) upon the natives, likening the plant to the Homeric vrine^i ;: . . For the
inhabitants of these regions, not content with the natural virtue ofwine, which, hovever, they do not
possess in great quantity, or with the other types of wine tree of that place, on the ground that In
their opinion it elates one for a short time only, have devised from this plant such things as
are able at a moment to remove anxieties of the heart, grief, or fear of dangers: yet this cannot be,
except by a violent commotion of the senses and clouding of the intellect, which they themselves call

137

PART TWO • CHAPTER VIII

Still R. N. Chopra held to the Sarcostemma theory,' mentioning
also the possibility of Periploca aphylla;^ earlier, Chopra had also done
extensive work with the Ephedras.' Karl Geldner in his translation of
the RgVeda maintained that Soma could only be a species of Ephedra,
probably Ephedra intermedia or E. pachydada, the fruit of which is red
and eaten by children and the stem of which is dried and taken in
water as a treatment for fever.-* Though he himself admitted that the
juice was described as red, he nevertheless reiterated the old tradition
that the ‘milk’ of the plant must be white, citing as support for this
the verses that he had translated as Soma juice mixed with milk
{rx gan:^ klar‘) or Soma delighting us with the ‘milk’ (i.e.,

the expressed fluid) of the stem (ix 107'*).

Chinnaswami Sastri published, in 1953, an article demonstrating
that Soma was not wine, reviewing the Brdhmana substitutes, and con-
cluding that the Soma juice was neither an intoxicant nor a stimulant.*
The orthodoxy of Sri Chinnaswami’s position may be indicated by the
fact that his article is written in Sanskrit. Reinhold F. G. Muller pointed
out the references to Soma in the Hindu medical books and concluded
that fermented drinks, surd, and brandy could have been used as
substitutes, but he remarked that evidence of the process of distil-
lation in India before Islam had not been proven.® Mircea Eliade ex-
presses the view that ritual intoxication by means of hemp, opium,

drunkenne&s buc wc call inanity^ which is usually followed by mania or a stupid condition.* (Rum*
phius, Hcrb^rinm Ambeinatse, Amsterdam^ 1755; volume 5, p. 2o5). By bhang was so well known
that Lord Neaves honored it with this bit of doggerel:

The hemp — with which we used to hang
Our prison pets, yon felon gang —

In Eastern climes produces Bang,

Esteemed a drug divine.

1. R. N. Chopra, S. C. Nayar, I. C. Chopra: Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants, 195^.

2. R. N. Chopra et <jI. : Poisonous Plants of India, 1949, Vol. 1. p. 683.

3. R. N. Chopra. S. Krishna, and T. P. Chose, 'Indian Ephedras, their Chemistr>’ and Pharmacology.'
Indian purnal of Medical Rtsearch. No. 19. i 93 i-a. PP- 177 - 219 : and ef. S. Krishna and T. P. Chose.
'Indian Ephedras and their Extraction .’ of the Indian Society of Chemistry, No. 48 t. 19291 P- ^ 7 -

4. Karl Geldner: Der Ri^-Veda, published in Harsard Oriental Series. Volumes 33 - 35 . i 95 >. Vot ui.
p. 2. Part I of an earlier version of Geldner s translation had been published in Leipzig in sw* tJt
Geldner died before the completion of Part m (which included the Soma hymns).

5. Chinnaswami Sastri; -Soma-svarupavimarSa,’ in Our Heritage. No. i. Calcutta, ‘953. 80-W.

6. Reinhold F.G. Miillcr: Soma in der Altindischen Heilkunde,' Asiatica. Festschrift fUr ne nc

Weller, Leipzig. i 9 S 4 . p- 428-441-

138

LATER RESEARCHES

and other plant drugs is characteristic of a decadent period of sham-
anism. and that such means were only reluctantly admitted into the
sphere of classical Yoga. He remarks, however, upon Patahjali’s refer-
ence to herbs as a source of meditative powers and on the RgVedic
description of the sage drinking poison.’ He points to the use of opium
and hashish in ecstatic and orgiastic sects in India, but he does not
comment on Soma’s possible status as such a drug, nor indeed upon
the nature of the ecstasy induced by Soma, though he treats of the

Vedas - and of ecstasy - at great length.*

A. L. Basham says that Soma is not what the Parsis now call
Haoma (for the latter has no inebriating qualities), nor is it alcoholic
(for it was consumed on the same day that it was pressed), and he
goes on: 'The effects of Soma, with “vivid hallucinations" and the
sense of expanding to enormous dimensions, are rather like those
attributed to such drugs as hashish. Soma may well have been hemp . . .
from which modern Indians produce a narcotic drink called Wunig.’’
Several Indian works were then published which investigated certain
previously ignored plants as possible Soma plants: Nadkarni and
Nadkarni identified the ‘moon-creeper’ with P(cderia foetida, a plant
used for the treatment of rheumatism;* P. V. Sharma called Crinum
Iflti/c'lnim, a plant whose leaves and roots are emetic and purgative, the
so»H-vcI.*

V. G. Rahurkar arose to combat the alcohol theory, insisting that
the Vedic references to rjlsd and tiroahnya^ show that Soma did not
have time to ferment: he supported Oldenberg’s mead hypothesis
and concluded: ‘Soma juice, thus, seems to be an orgiastic . . . non-
alcoholic syrup-like . . . enervating drink. It was not even a fermented

1. Patanjall KaH Sanskrit Series No. Ss, Benares. 1931; verse 4.1) states that au^adhi

(herbs) and samddhi (meditation) are methods of obtaining siddhi (perfection through yoga).

2. MirceaEliadc: Lt Yoga, ImmonaHU €i Uberti, Pins, 1954: republished by Bollingen, 1958, in English
translation as Yoga: /mmorMlitv and Freedom, p. 338.

3. A. L. Basham: The Wonder That Was India, London, 1954, pp. 235-d.

4. K. M. Nadkarni and A. K. Nadkarni. Indian Maiaia Medica, Bombay. 1954.

5. P. V. Sharma. Dra^ya Gun Vigyttn, Benares. 1956.

6 . rjisd (which occun only once, RgVeda 1 32^) is thought by some to refer to the part of the Soma
stalk left over after the juice has been expressed: Grassmann takes it to mean 'rushing forward
freely*, and, as it applies to Indra rather than Soma, this is more likely, lirdalinvj. 'having lasted
through yesterday*, is an adjective applied to Soma.

139

PART TWO • CHAPTER VH1

liquor. ' B. H. Kapadia says that Soma’s ‘fruit’ is red and fleshy and
» * it seems to have been a creeper (he cites atasd

and and that it is an inflexible bush with dense, upright, leafless

stalks. Still. Pentii Aalto states that Soma fermented for one to nine
days; ‘the alcohol percentage cannot have been high. Perhaps the
juice of the plant contained narcotic ingredients.’*

The possible nature of these ‘narcotic ingredients’ was the subject
of an article by Karl Hummel, who gave \^edic citations to establish
that the Soma plant must be mountainous, yielding copious sap, and
golden red in color.® Noting the opinions of Regel and Sir Aurel Stein,
Hummel maintained that rhubarb best satisfied the requirements, for
rhubarb is known to grow in the mountains of inner Asia, to yield a
copious green-gold sap which turns reddish brown after standing for a
while, and, of course, to be bright red. or, in some species, golden.
Moreover, rhubarb is known to contain the drug Emodin; the problem
of the supposed sweetness of the Soma juice, a quality absent from
rhubarb juice, is easily solved by the assumption that the Indo-Ar)'ans
mixed Soma with honey, as well as with barley and milk. And as for
intoxicating properties, also absent from the rhubarb juice, Hummel
maintained that these were sufficiently supplied by the mere sig/it of
the glorious red stalks in the eyes of 'the naive people.’ A more con-
ventional source of intoxication - i.e., fermentation - was cited by
N. A. Qazilbash to support his choice for Soma - Ephedra pachyclada.^
Qazilbash maintained that the absence of latex in the Ephedra did
not disqualif}' it, for only the later Sanskrit writers, and never the
Rg\'eda, attributed the presence of latex to the Soma plant. Ephedra

1. V. G- Rahurkar: *\Vas Soma a spiricuous liquor?', Orimwl Thoughts No. a, C955* PP*

2. B. H. Kapadia: A Criiical Inurpretatiim and Invistigation cf Epithets cf Serna, Mahandyalaya, Valiabha,

*959» PP* 4 ^nd 35. . • • K

3. atasd means 'bush, undcrgrowch, or shrub*; vdna means 'tree . Their relationship svith Soma in t e

Rg Veda is inconclusive. t- ri

4. Pentii Aalto: ’Madvam apeyam,* in Jehanna Scbel Cemmrmaraticn \ clume, Jfianam tava ntcr

national Academy of Indian Culture, New Delhi. I959» PP* *7*37.

5. Dr. Karl Hummel. Tubingen: 'Aus welchcr PQanac sccUten die arischen Indcr den
her?\ Mituilungen dcr Dcutschen Pharma^eutischni GeselUchaJt und der PhamayO^tisc se

der DDR. April I959» pp. 57-^1* ^

6. N. A. QazUbash: Ephedra of ihe Etig^eda/ TV PkarmareuticalJcumjl. London. November i960.

pp- 497-Soi.

140

LATER RESEARCHES

grows abundantly all along the Eiindu Kush and Sulenian
ranges and yields a number of alkaloids, including L-cphedrinc. Ephe-
dra. and Pseudo-ephedrinc. which act similarly to the hormone adre-
nalin and are used (in the form of crushed green twigs of Ephedra
pachyclada) in Khyber and parts of Afghanistan as aphrodisiacs; it was
Qazilbash’s belief that at the time of the RgVeda the Ephedra plant
was allowed to ferment, yielding a liquor that contained alcohol and
ephedra alkaloids; ‘the liquor, therefore, was intoxicating and pos-
sessed invigorating and stimulating effects . . . [and] . . . aphrodisiacal

effects.’*

G. M. Patil remarks upon Soma’s unparalleled intoxicating and
invigorating nature. ‘This intoxicant made [the Vedic people] talkative
and inspired them to fight. It made them forget their mental and
physical agonies, and therefore, it was a wonderful herb . . Jan
Gonda reiterated the hydromel theory,® and Alain Danielou at first
supported the theory of Soma as the creeper Sflrcosfeinma brevistigmu,-*
but later he seems to have amended his views in favor of Indian hemp
(‘le chanvre Indien) as the plant from which the ancient Soma drink
was made.® Yet the growing dissatisfaction with conventional theories
of Soma and increasing familiarity with drug-induced religious experi-
ences have led many modern scholars to venture onto new territory;
Leopold Fischer suggests that the state of mind evinced by the Soma
texts 'comes much closer to alkaloid drug experiences than to al-
coholic intoxication.’®

It is ironic that one of the earliest Vedic beliefs about Soma - that it
was brought by a bird’ - appears as a scientific criterion in two of the

X. R. Hegnauer. in his ChcmoiaxoncmiederPJtan^fn (Basel, 1961. Vol. t, pp. 45 im^). discusses in detail
the toxic elTects of various Ephedras, identifying several of them with the Soma plant on the basis
of Qazilbash's work.

2. G. M. Patil: 'Soma the Vedic Deity/ Oriental Thought, No. 4, i960, pp. 69*79.

Jan Gonda: Die Religionen Indiens, Stuttgart, i960, Vol. 1, p. 64.

4 - Alain Danielou: U Polytkrisme Hindou, Paris, i960, p. tit.

5* Alain Danielou: L'Erotume Divinu/, Paris. 1962, p. 53.

6. Agehananda Bharaci (Leop>old Fischer): The Tantric Tradition, London. 1965, p. 2S7.

7 > Videiupra, p. 96. The belief that the Soma was brought from heaven by a falcon appears frequently
throughout the RgVeda and other Indo*European sources, cf. A. Kuhn. Mylfiologische Studien, I: Die
Herabkunft des Fevers vnd des G^ttertranks. Gutersloh, 1SS6. Also cf. RgV^eda i So*, 111 43^, tv 18* 3 , tv 26^
V 45^. U 68 ^ n 77*. IX S 6 * 4 , X Xi**, X 99®, X 144**, etc.

I4I

PART TWO • CHAPTER VIII

most recent studies of the Soma plant. Varro E. Tyler discards Periplo-
cii aphylla as a possibility because it ‘occurs only at low altitudes in the
mountains, contains a gummy latex not utilizable as a beverage, and
lacks fleshy fruits attractive to birds . . . [Soma’s] fruits are eaten by
birds which disperse the seeds in the mountains, thereby propagating
the plant.’' He also discards the Ephedra theory because ‘it is very
difficult to express much juice from these xeromorphic plants,’ though
he adds that Ephedra pachyclada when boiled in milk is used as an
aphrodisiac and that ‘the ash of the plant is mixed with tobacco to pro-
duce an intoxicating mixture which is applied to the gums.’ Bringing
similar objections against the rhubarb plant, he concludes: ‘Either
the ancient hymns of the Rigveda and the Avesta are gross exaggera-
tions of fact or there grows in the vast mountain ranges of north-west
India a plant whose CNS-stimulating properties, so well-known to
the old inhabitants, still remain hidden from modern man.’*

A far more thorough article was published in the same year by J. G.
Srivastava, but he too held fast to the importance of the agency of the
bird, and to another long-disputed criterion: the RgVedic verse that
some have misinterpreted as attributing to the Soma plant a thousand
boughs.^ He supports the latter implication with a verse from the
Rdjani^hantii which according to him describes the climber as having
‘several stems from the root-stock’,* and with a verse from the SwirwM
S4]m/nfd which gives the Soma plant ‘a tuberous root’.* Granting how-
ever that the RgVeda itself never attributes to the plant the qualities of
a climber or milky latex, Srivastava goes on to mention several other
plants with which the Soma has been identified, including the Centella
asiatica, Cocculus hirsutus (used as a laxative and a cure for venereal

I. Varro E. Tyler, Jr: The Physiological Properties and Chemical Constituents of Some Habit-
Forming Plants; Soma-Homa, Divine Plant of the Ancient Aryans , Lhydia, Vol. 29. No. 4, December

1966. p. 284.

2. Ibid., p. 285. . . L <•

3. RgVeda IX s’®. Sahdsravaliam, the adjective in question, modifies vdnaspdtim, which refers to

the tree of sacrifice, not to the Soma plane.

4. J. G. Srivastava. The Soma Plant.' Quarurly Journal of Crude Drus Research. So. 6 (1966). h p- n-
This seems to be a translation of the phrase died above and translated as having great c usiers n e

supra, p.99)' , t f* « nf

5. Srivastava does not give the Sanskrit for this particular phrase but it may e a trans a 10

amiuman (vide supra, p. 99).

142

LATER RESEARCHES

diseases). FnixiiiKs j?en/>n»di<s-. Psor.i/e.i corv/iyi>/ui (used to cure leprosy),
Ccvsiilpiniii crisui, and TVicspesui /.n»p*is - most of these cited by the
Ayurvedic Kosh. He disqualifies the genus Sarcostemma and the Periple-
Cii iiphylla because birds do not disperse their fruits: he disqualifies
\'i(is \’i»i/crii because it does not have the twigs and stalks that the
Kif^-vedii clearly states’ to have been used; and finally he settles back
upon the Ephedra, whose ‘seeds are covered by red. succulent, edible
bracts, and are dispersed by birds.’ and whose medical properties -
which he describes at length - are commensurate with the fame of the
Soma plant.'

Most recently an article by J. P. Koogcr appeared to suntmarize
briefly the major Soma theories, including Wasson’s AnmniM uniscurm
thesis, based on the note presented by Wasson in 1966 at the Peabody

Museum of Natural History at Yale University. Referring to Wasson's
theory as ‘sensational’ (op:^tVM/>areMde) and likely to deal a great blow
to e.vtant theories, he nevertheless concluded that the mystery sur-

rounding the identity of the Soma plant was by no means solved.*

Some years ago. R. C. Zaehner revived the rhubarb suggestion
by referring to Haoma in these rather qualified terms: ‘The Haoma
plant (from its description as yellow and glowing probably something
very like our rhubarb, which is found in the Iranian mountains to this
day) . . More recently, he mentioned to me the possibility that Haoma
might be the wild chicory, which grows in the mountains of Persia,
though he considers this suggestion merely a shot in the dark. But in
actual fact, what else have all the other theories been but just that?
Some ingenious, some thoughtful, some obviously silly, some plausi-
ble, some vague, some stubbornly wrong-headed, some Procrustean,
some groping toward the truth - but all shots in the dark.

Not knowing what plant the poets of the RgVeda had in mind, mod-
ern scholars have often jumped to the conclusion that the hymns are
vague and obscure in speaking of Soma. The BrJ/inmnas, dealing as they
do with involved chains of substitutes, add to the confusion in almost

1. Srivasuva, cp. dr, p. 8i6.

2. J. P. Koogcr, 'Hci Raadscl van dc Hciligc Sonia^Plant dcr Indo-lranicrs,* PhanruiYuKidi Tydidin/t
vooT 445h year. No. 7, 1967. pp. C37-iJ3.

3* R> C. Zachner: Th^ Danit end Tmiight cf Zoroastrianism y London, 1961, p. S8.

M 3

PART TWO • CHAPTER VIII

geometric progression; the few Avestan parallels are rendered more
or less useless by the overlay of purely Iranian elements; and by the
time the Europeans enter the scene, with their fixed ideas and various
axes to grind, the situation approaches bedlam. Handicapped by a
rudimentary knowledge of the vernacular and ancient languages of
India and by inadequate communication in the academic world, schol-
ars covered the same ground over and over again. Time and time
again the same ideas appear, are disproved, and reappear as if they
were pro\ cn theories; scholars draw upon the work of their colleagues
and occasionally upon newly discovered primary materials, but there
is remarkably little attention to the RgVeda itself. (Hillebrandt, Roth,
and Geldner are notable exceptions.) Even within these limits, there
seems to have been little contact between botanists and Vedists,
Indian scholars and Europeans.

Fairly convincing evidence that Soma was not an alcoholic beverage
was established quite early, yet Europeans continued to identify it
with various forms of alcohol, and Indians continued to put pen to
paper in order to assure the world that wine -which is of course
anathema to an orthodox Hindu -was not Soma. The word for in-
toxication is ambiguous both in Sanskrit (mdda) and in European
languages; it denotes drunkenness or inebriation resulting from al-
cohol, but it may also apply to a mental state similar to that produced
by alcohol. Thus the statement that Soma was ‘intoxicating’ as it
appears in various discussions and in the RgVeda itself does not really
exclude any plant capable of producing a state of exhilaration, includ-
ing narcotic or psychotropic plants. The further vagueness of such
terms as 'liquor' and 'strong spirits’ blurred the distinction between
fermentation and distillation, as does the uncertain connotation of
the term siini. All of this served to mask the inappropriateness of the

identification of Soma with alcohol.

Often scholars tended to confuse the question of the identity of the
plant with the nature of the process by which the drink was made from
it, overlooking the fact that the beer theory, the mead theory, and the
Sarcostcmma theory are complementary rather than opposed, while
only such theories as those postulating wine or bhang exclude all

144

LATER RESEARCHES

others. And. on the other hand, this failure to distinguish substance
from method led several scholars to attempt a combination of various

theories that are in fact incompatible.

It was difficult to resist the temptation to identify the Vedic plant
with the plant actually used by the descendants of the authors ol the
Vedas, no matter how many facts argued against this identification,
and in fact one is inclined to believe that there must be some rela-
tionship between the original and the substitutes, some quality in the
substitute which resembled a quality of Soma enough for it to have
been chosen in the absence ol Soma, but the question remains as to
which quality - taste or colour or effect or shape -this might con-
ceivably be.

B. H. Kapadia remarked. ‘Many Latin names are given for this plant
like Ephedra, etc., but we do not know exactly about it.’ and this
could surely stand as the epitaph for the greater part of the research
done in those halcyon days of science - the nineteenth century, parti-
cularly the nineteenth century in Germany- when one still lelt that
by giving a categorizing Latin name to an unknown quantity one had
somehow settled something. To argue whether Soma was Siirceslemmu
brevishgimi. or Ephedra pachyclada, or Perip/ecti aphylla was to assure
oneself that the Soma plant had been found and that there only re-
mained a few messy details to be cleared up; this led to smugness and
a general disinclination to delve further that might not have existed
had one been forced to call the plant ‘milkweed’ or ‘some sort of rue’.
It is at first striking that Wmng was not considered as a possibility until
1921, but it is more understandable when one takes into consideration
the greater attention that the psycho-physiological effects of drug-
taking have received in recent times, especially in contrast with the
universal disapprobation with which they were formerly associated.'
Only in the last few generations have the anthropologists, botanists,
and pharmacologists of the West entered fully into the problems
presented by psychotropic plants and their role in the history of
human cultures. The use of hashish in the Middle East has, of course,

I. In ihis context, it is interesting to note that by 18^4 Regel had rejected (CdnndNs indica) as a

possibility for the Soma plant. V'ide supra, p. 114.

145

PART TWO • CHAPTER VIII

long been known, but until twenty years ago only as a curiosity. The
discover)- of mescaline by the modern world is almost a century old,
and for some years has provoked widespread attention.

Aldous Huxley, one of the leading writers on this subject in recent
times, gave the name 'Soma’ to an unspecified marvellous drug in his
novel Bmve New World, in 1932. In his last novel. Island (1962), he
depicted a Utopia that is clearly Indian throughout - Sanskrit is the
language of the cult, ^iva is worshipped, and Yoga is essential to the
philosophy of the islanders. And the drug upon which the cult of the
Island is based is an hallucinogenic mushroom. That the mushroom is
yellow and traditionally collected high in the mountains might sug-
gest that Huxley had Atnanita muscaria in mind - even that he was
thinking of the Soma of the RgVeda, although he says expressly that
the ‘moksha-medicine’ (as it is called) is not one of 'those lovely red
toadstools that gnomes used to sit on.’' Later in 'Culture and the
Individual’* Huxley, discussing the genesis of Island, says that he had
been thinking of ‘a substance akin to psilocybin’, the active agent in
the divine mushrooms of Mexico. The Wassons played a major part
in the re-discovery of the Mexican psilocybin cult and Wasson himself
had discussed his Mexican mushrooms and the Soma problem with
Huxley in the late 1950’s.

Certainly as soon as one rids oneself of the assumption that anything
'intoxicating’ must be alcoholic, an hallucinogen of some kind seems
the likely candidate for Soma, far more likely than millet or Afghan
grapes or rhubarb or any other of the many plants that have been
suggested. Few Vedic scholars knew any botany and some of them
may not have realized that they were dealing with a problem
I primarily botanical. The botanists on the other hand could not read
the RgVeda, by far the most important source about Soma, and so
they permitted themselves to enter upon speculations that often seem
ludicrous in the light of the Vedic hymns. But on behalf of both
Vedists and botanists it is only fair to recall that for the most part the

1. Aldous Huxley: Island, Penguin cd., 19^4. P*

2. An essay published in The Book of Crass, an aniholog)' cdiicd by George An fcws an

Vinkenoog, Grove Press Inc., New York, 29^7, pp* The passage cited is on p. aoo.

146

LATER RESEARCHES

Soma question had for them merely a peripheral interest. Though
the identification of Soma remained a desideratum of Indian studies,
no outstanding figure applied himself directly and fully to the solu-
tion of this enigma. The historians of religion seem likewise to have
given it only glancing attention.

Philippe de Felice in 1936 offered a significant description of Soma
but. as he was not a member of the academic establishment, little
notice was taken of it. Much the same is true of Hu.vley's speculative
writings on the subject. If professional scholars attached small im-
portance to the theories of these ‘outsiders’, it must be said that they
offered no satisfactory alternative. Although the effort to identify
the Soma plant has produced one of the most spirited and imagi-
native chapters in Vedic studies, it has also resulted in considerably
more confusion than clarification. Wasson’s novel solution of this old
question revivifies a body of speculation that has become increas-
ingly sterile and repetitive, and throws important problems of Indo-
European and even Eurasian cultural history into a new perspective.
This is indeed a welcome contribution, and it is to be hoped that
its implications will be exploited in wide-ranging debate and fresh
syntheses.

147

*•*

4»«l

«•»«!

»«!

PART THREE

NORTHERN EURASIA AND THE FLY-AGARIC

*•*

4»«l

«•»«!

»«!

EXPLORERS, TRAVELERS. AND ANTHROPOLOGISTS

I N the Exhibits we have assembled all the basic sources that we
could find on the use of the fly-agaric for inebriating purposes
in Siberia. They include a miscellany of travelers (a few' of them
Innocents Abroad), explorers and scientists on governmental mis-
sion, and anthropologists; also some linguists who discuss a fasci-
nating w'ord cluster that relates to our theme. We have added three

secondary sources for particular reasons.

The earliest of our authors [i] is a poor Polish lad, not endowed with
much education, w’ho kept a diary of his stay in Siberia as a prisoner of
the Tsar. An entry in that diary records the fact that in 1658 he saw
the Ob-Ugrian Ostyaks getting drunk on the fly-agaric. Our latest
paper is by two Soviet scientists [42I living in Vladivostok who in the
fall of 1966 contributed an epitaph to the ancient practice;

The minor nationalities of Siberia and the Far East now do not
use any psychoactive drugs. . . . After the October Socialist Revo-
lution and the establishment of Soviet Power these not numerous
peoples have embarked on a new way of historical development.
Formerly backward nationalities on a borderland of Russia, w'ith
the help of the Russian people and Soviet Power, they soon reached
the socialist phase of social development.

The Soviet Union has never allowed foreigners to visit these ‘minor
nationalities’.

The testimony of our writers is of course worth only as much as the
writers are worth. A few of them -notably the English-speaking
contingent [14. 15, 20] and the one Frenchman [7] - lack understanding.
They are superficial and disdainful, and most of their information
seems to come from local Russian informants of dubious reliability,
or from earlier writers whom we have also quoted, or else read and
discarded as worthless. {Vide, e.g., Kennan [14] citing OliverGoldsmith.
who in turn paraphrased von Strahlenberg 13].) The ignorance about
mushrooms of these writers in English and French seems to have been

151

PART THREE • CHAPTER I

complete. We reprint what they had to say because they are often
quoted as sources but they are worthless.

When Erman [ii] informs us that Toyon’s wife transplanted a
number of baby fly-agarics from the forest to her garden where he
saw them some days later flourishing in their big scarlet caps, the
mycologist raises his eyebrows. When he says that a native pays a
reindeer for one fly-agaric in the off-season, we accept this, as other
witnesses testify to the high value placed on the marvelous plant by
those who used it.

Some of the Siberian tribesmen live in filth and indulge in practices
that shock and revolt those Europeans whose sense of scientific
detachment is not phenomenally developed. If in addition the observer
is a mycophobe, taught from childhood to turn away with a shudder
from a ‘toadstool’, his impulses will surely overpower his objectivity.
Europeans have long held the fly-agaric to be lethal. The testimony of
our writers on this will certainly be found surprising. Many of them
and among the most trustworthy expressly acquit the fly-agaric of
causing death; in fact, they testify that, properly dried, it has no bad
effects. When a few of the writers mention deaths from the fly-agaric
each of those deaths should be weighed carefully. Is there a single
witness (some of whom spent not months but years and even a decade
among the natives) who saw a man die from fly-agaric eating, or who
was present in a settlement at the time of such a death? I think not.
Does the reported death come from a native informant or from a
fellow European, probably a mycophobe? If the latter, is it only
hearsay in the foreign community, perhaps the very same death that
was reported by Krashemnnikov [4] in his book published in the mid-
dle of the i8th century, a death that he himself reported as hearsay?
If the source is native, is it of the kind - highly significant - that is
accepted as veridical, according to Kai Conner [28], in the upper Yeni
sei among the Ket and the Selkup; vi^., that only shamans and those
who are to become shamans can eat the fly-agaric with impunity,
all others will surely die. (Lehtisalo [24] records similar shamanic
beliefs.) Conner is not discussing vital statistics: he translates us to a
different realm. We are in the presence of fossil survivals of remote

152

THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

beliefs, a sanction for violating a tabu, and it is precisely the sanction
(at the time a projection of a surmise) that led niy wife and me de-
cades ago to suspect that our own remote ancestors had worshipped a
mushroom and that a heavy tabu, surviving to this very day, had been
laid on eating it. Death will come if the layman presumes to eat the
forbidden fruit, the Fruit of Knowledge, the Divine Mushroom of
Immortality that the Taoists talk about and that the poets of the
RgWda celebrated. The fear of this ‘death’ has lived on as an emo-
tional residue, long after the shaman and his religion have faded from
memory, and here is the explanation for the mycophobia that has
prevailed throughout northern Europe, in the Germanic and Celtic
worlds, in particular for the macropsia with which the north Euro-
peans - and not least the mycologists and toxicologists - have viewed
the poisonous properties of the fly-agaric.

There is a consensus among our writers that the natives of Siberia
consumed the fly-agaric only after drying it. Von Strahlenberg [3]
says that water is poured on it, then the water and mushrooms are
boiled and the liquor is drunk. He does not mention dried mushrooms,
but as he is speaking of winter they must have been dried. He and von
Langsdorf [lo] are the only ones who mention cooking the fly-agaric.
Krasheninnikov [4I says that the dried mushrooms are steeped in the
must of an Epilobium, which later writers have identified as the
Russian kiprei, Epilobiiim angustifolium. (The ‘must’ is not fermented.)
Krasheninnikov is the only source to mention Epilobium, but there
seems no reason to doubt his word. It is natural, given the scattered
population in Siberia and the poor communications, that customs vary
from settlement to settlement, and even within the same settlement,
from shaman to shaman. Steller [5I says that ‘the fly-agarics are dried,
then eaten in large pieces without chewing, being washed down
with cold water. Georgi [6], on the other hand, is responsible for the
statement that in the Narym region the natives either eat one fresh
mushroom or drink a decoction of three ; but he is suspect as a witness.
According to von Langsdorf [10], the Kamchadal prefer to leave the
mushrooms to dry in the ground, exposed to the natural air and the
sun. Small ones with many warts, he says, are the best and the most

153

PART THREE • CHAPTER 1

powerful. They are swallowed whole, being swallowed with the juice
of bilberries ( V't3cdMi«»i i(/iginosnm), either one large mushroom or two
small. Erman [ii] and von Maydell [12] mention that they are taken
dry, von Maydell adding that they are smoked and shrivelled up.
Enderli’s [19] description is classical on this point:

At the man’s order, the woman dug into an old leather sack, in which
all sorts of things were heaped one on top of another, and brought
out a small package wrapped in dirty leather, from which she took a
few old and dry fly-agarics. She then sat down next to the two men
and began chewing the mushrooms thoroughly. After chewing, she
took the mushroom out of her mouth and rolled it between her
hands to the shape of a little sausage. The reason for this is that the
mushroom has a highly unpleasant and nauseating taste, so that even
a man who intends to eat it always gives it to someone else to chew
and then swallows the little sausage whole, like a pill. When the
mushroom sausage was ready, one of the men immediately swallow-
ed it greedily by shoving it deep into his throat with his indescribably
filthy fingers (for the Koiy'aks never wash in all their lives).

The Koryak told Sljunin [18] that the fresh fly-agarics are highly
poisonous and hence they do not eat them. They are dried, either in
the sun or over the fire, and then consumed with fresh water to wash
them down. Karjalainen [26]. speaking of the shaman’s ways among
the Irtysh Ostyak, says that they swallow whole either three or seven
mushroom caps, which may be fresh or dried: the Irtysh usage runs
counter to the trend among our witnesses in that the shaman may
take fresh mushrooms. Kannisto [33] speaking of the Vogul cultures
reports that the mushrooms are dry when they are used. Lehtisalo
[24], discussing the Yurak shamans (northern Samoyeds), tells us that
the mushrooms must be fully grown and dry. Jochelson [21] also
confirms that they are taken dry. There is no aspect of the fly-agaric
on which there is more testimony than this, and the witnesses are
almost unanimous. Particularly impressive is the quotation that we
give in [30] from an heroic hymn of the Vogul people, where the
hero, the 'two-belted one’, addressing his wife, says, Woman, bring
me in my three sun-dried fly-agarics!’

154

THREE MAPS

The data for our maps arc drawn from the following sources:

A. the ethnic distribution from the map accompanying The Peoples of Siberia,
M. G. Levin and L. P. Potapov, Editors, originally published in Moscow and
Leningrad in 1956 under the title l^arody Silx'ri ; translated into English un<
der the editorship of Stephen Dunn and published by the University of
Chicago Press, 1964;

B. for the distribution of the genus Bctula we have relied chiefly on Trees &
Shrubs of the USSR. S. Ja. Sokolov, cd., Ac. of Sciences, USSR, Moscow and
Leningrad, 1951. vol. u, text fig. 72. p. 267: supplementing this source by
data from the Gray Herbarium;

C. for the distribution of the genus Pinus we rely on Geographic DistrihMtion
of the Pines of the World, by Wm. B. Crichfield and Elbert L. Little. Jr., Forest
Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., February
1966. The distribution of firs and other conifers is generally within the con-
fines set by the pines.

TUNDRA AND TAIGA

MILES c.rw^

Zyf^an

Ci>eremi$

Mordvin

ETHNIC GROUPS

0$tyak

^3 Vogul
> Yurak Samoyed

llllllllllll Ostyak SarT>oyed
Yenisei Ostyak

I Distribution of the Genus 6etula

Distribution of the Genus Pinus

ARCTIC

Last StBLRtAS St A

ss\\%

TAIGOMOS (5« ?) ® ft

PCN^NSUIA r- ^

GIzhigmsk

^*1

OCEAN

cC?

HER INC
SEA

SEA OF
OKHOTSK

Sedanka'

Wp ‘THE CHUKOTKA'

( Collective name for lands of the Chukchi,
^Yetovka Koryak, Kamchadal. and Yukagir, m the
h far Northeast of Siberia)

ETHNIC GROUPS

KAMCHATKA'

PENINSULA

Yukagir

Kamchadal

Koryak

Chukchi

MILES

y Distribution of the Genus Betula

n Distribution of the Ger»us Betula
—I and the Genus Pious j >• m wHW'

THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Thus it seems that drying is of the essence. The natives think that
the fresh ones arc dangerous, or at least not satisfactorily inebriating.
Some say that eating many fresh mushrooms will kill you. but how do
we know? I did not realise this when 1 went to Japan m the tail ot
1965 and 1966, and with Japanese friends tried the fresh fly-agarics^
The Rg\'eda had not prepared me for the drying. I had known of
course that the Soma plants were mixed with water before being
pounded with the pressing stones, but I had supposed that this was to
freshen up the plants so that they would be capable of yielding juice
when pressed. The desiccation. I thought, was an inevitable conse-
quence of bringing the mushrooms from afar and keeping them on
hand. There was nothing to tell me that desiccation was a sine qmi non
of the Soma rite. The reader may think that I should have familiarized
myself with the Siberian practice before going to Japan. I agree. Ima-
zeki, who by chance toasted his caps on one occasion before eating
them, alone had satisfactory results, insistently declaring that this was
nothing like alcohol, that this was far superior, in fact in a different
world. Alone among us all, he has known nnirfij, the ambrosia of the
Immortals.

As for the harm that the fly-agarics might be expected to provoke,
our witnesses give revealing testimony. Georgi [6] says that the natives

feel much less head after this method of intoxication than is produced
by spirituous liquors; nor is the use of it followed by any dangerous
consequences.

Kopec’s experiences [9] with the mushrooms, for what they arc worth,
were benign and pleasant; he was not moved to violence. Von Langsdorf
[to] says that although he made great efforts to find out something
about the harmful or possibly deadly effects of the fly-agaric, he
could obtain no satisfactory information on the subject.

The Koryaks [he goes on] greatly prefer fly-agarics to the Russians’
vodka and maintain that after eating fly-agarics a man never suffers
from headaches or other ill effects. It is true that in extremely rare
cases (of which no one could recall any speafic example) persons who
consumed an extraordinarily large quantity of the mushrooms are

155

PART THREE • CHAPTER I

said to have died in convulsions, senseless and speechless, after sis or
eight days. However, it is not reported that moderate consumption
e\er produced any harmful after-effects. If. contrary to expectations,
immoderate consumption of fly-agarics should nevertheless be
followed by pressure on the stomach or some other disturbance,
two or three spoonfuls of fat, blubber, butter, or oil are reputed to
be an infallible remedy.

(Sljunin [i8] gives an alternative antidote: . a glass of vodka or
diluted alcohol. A quarter of an hour after swallowing the vodka, the
Koryak who is totally oblivious of his environment under the effect of
the mushroom, completely regains consciousness.’) Erman [iij quotes
a native informant as saying that

mushroom intoxication had a quite different effect from alcoholic
drunkenness, since the former put the Kamchatka natives into a
peaceful and gentle (skromne in Russian) mood, and they had seen
how differently the Russians were affected by spirits.

Von Maydell I12J. who passed the decade from 1861 to 1871 in Siberia,
confirms the impression conveyed by his predecessors:

... the mushroom produces only a feeling of great comfort, together
with outward signs of happiness, satisfaction, and well-being. Thus
far the use of the fly-agaric has not been found to lead to any harmful
results, such as impaired health or reduced mental powers.

In a footnote he adds that he had been told of one fatal case, a Russian
who died after eating rather large quantities of fresh mushrooms.
He ‘had been told’: again we are in the realm of hearsay.

Von Dittmar [13I says substantially the same:

Mukhomor eaters describe the narcosis as most beautiful and
splendid. The most wonderful images, such as they never see in
their lives otherwise, pass before their eyes and lull them into a
state of the most intense enjoyment. Among the numerous persons
whom 1 myself have seen intoxicated in this way, I cannot remember
a single one who was raving or wild. Outwardly the effect was
always thoroughly calming -I might almost say, comforting. For
the most part the people sit smiling and friendly, mumbling quietl)
to themselves, and all their movements are slow and cautious.

156

THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

According to Sljunin [[8], the Kory^ik maintain that the continued
consumption of the mushroom has no ill eflcct on the person s health.
Enderli I19] reports that after a period ot lethargy ^nd monotonous
singing, the mushroom eater is suddenly seized with a frenzy, raving
and calling for drums, and then begins a deafening spell of singing,
drumming, and running around within the confines of the yurt. He
concludes with this sentence: . . immoderate consumption involves
the danger of madness or death, but such cases occur rarely.’ If he had
seen or heard of an actual death, he is such an e.xcellent reporter that
he would certainly have told us about it. Jochelson and Bogoraz
[21, 22I report no murderous outbreaks by fly-agaric eaters, and
Jochelson says that to his question as to which they preferred, brandy
or fly-agaric, many Koryak answered. ‘Fly-agaric.’ Jochelson added:
'Intoxication from the latter is considered more pleasurable, and the
reaction less painful, than that following brandy.’

In these comments of various observers there is nothing that sug-
gests the berserk-raging of the Vikings. Murderous ferocity marked
the Viking seizures almost always, whereas murderous ferocity is con-
spicuously absent from our eye-witness accounts of fly-agaric eating
in Siberia. In most of the reports the effect is soothing, sferonuto;
sometimes there is a noisy inebriation. Both are familiar to us as
expressions of alcoholic inebriation and both are harmless. The ardent
advocate of a link between the fly-agaric and berserk-raging must
content himself as best he can with the testimony of Krasheninnikov
UJ: ‘The Kamtschadalcs and the Korcki eat of it when they resolve to
murder anybody.’ This generalisation is hearsay: had he known of a
particular episode, he would have reported it. Thus he tells us about
four Russians who ate the fly-agaric, three of them in his entourage
and one by hearsay. They were a menace only to themselves. This is
the consensus of all the witnesses, and even here the threat to them-
selves is often hearsay, perhaps a reflex of the conventional attitude of
Europeans when speaking of inebriation. Reguly and, after a lapse of
some forty years, Munkacsi took down from native Vogul singers an
Heroic Song concerning the Creation of the World. This song [30],
drawn from the depths of the Vogul culture, is alone enough to

157

PART THREE • CHAPTER I

demolish the berserk-raging notion of the Scandinavians. Our Hero
had eaten three sun-dried fly-agarics and lay in a stupor when there
bursts in upon him a messenger with news of the enemy’s imminent
invasion. The messenger urges the 'bemushroomed' Hero to throw
off his inebriation and to come and lead the fight. The Hero replies
that he has no strength and sends the messenger to rally his younger
brothers. It is only on the second call that the Hero pulls himself out
of the fly-agaric stupor and calls for his arms.

So far as we know, only two of our witnesses ate the mushroom:
Kopec [9l, whose colourful narrative we publish for the first time in
English, and Donner [28], who unfortunately and rather primly gives
us no details other than that it is a powerful intoxicant. None drank
of the urine. But a number of the Russians who settled in Siberia took
to the fly-agaric, at least for a time. Many of our witnesses speak of
this, and there is a startling sentence in Erman [ii, p. 253] reading as
follows:

. . . the Russians of Klynchevsk, who according to the man from
Yelovka pick whole packhorse loads of this valuable plant, prepare
an e.xtract by decocting it in water, and try’ to take away its extremely
disgusting taste by mixing the extract with various berry juices.

What is surprising in this passage is the formula that the Russians hit
on: extracting the juice with the help of water and adding various
vehicles to make the drink palatable. In ancient times Soma was
mixed with water and pounded with stones, then mixed with milk or
curds or barley-water or honey; in Klynchevsk they mixed the extract
with the juice of berries.

A fairly consistent picture of the fly-agaric syndrome emerges from
reading the accounts of our witnesses. Krasheninnikov [4J says that in
moderation it raises the spirits and makes one brisk, courageous, and
cheerful, but if indulged in to excess, it leads to trembling, a merry
or melancholic mood according to one’s disposition, and macropsia. a
small hole appearing to them as a great pit, and a spoonful of water as a
lake.’ Von Langsdorf [10] confirms the macropsia: If one wishes to step
over a small stick or straw, one steps or jumps as though the obstacles

158

THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

were tree trunks.’ So do von Maydell, Sljunin, Bogoraz, and Jochelson
[12, i8, 22, 21]. There is often vomiting and at some stage sleep su-
pervenes, during and after which one sees marvelous visions, iiof erotic
according to von Maydell li2]; ‘highly sensuous’ according to Enderh
[19]. Kopec [9] seems to confirm Enderli. (We wonder how von Maydell
knew the fly-agaric did not give erotic pleasure.) A number of our
witnesses testily to the increase in strength that can be expected,
von Langsdorf [lo] met eye-witnesses who said that a man inebriated
with the mushroom had been able to carry a 120-lb. sack of flour
10 miles, and Bogoraz [22] describes one under the influence of the
fly-agaric:

His agility increases, and he displays more physical strength than
normally. Reindeer-hunters of the Middle Anadyr told me that
before starting in canoes in pursuit of animals, they would chew
agaric because that made them more nimble on the hunt. A native
fellow-traveler of mine, after raking agaric, would lay aside his snow-
shoes and walk through the deep snow hour after hour by the side
of his dogs for the mere pleasure of exercise, and without any feeling
of fatigue.

Von Langsdorf [10] declares that according to the statements of the
natives, those who have taken the fly-agaric in moderation feel 'ex-
traordinarily light on their feet and are then exceedingly skillful in
bodily movement and physical exercise.’ Erman [11] confirms this:

There is no doubt . . . about a ‘marvelous increase in physical
strength’, which the man praised as still another effect of the mush-
room intoxication. Tn harvesting hay’, he said, 'I can do the work of
three men from morning to nightfall without any trouble, if I have
eaten a mushroom.’

The Chukotka tribesmen personify the mushroom as little men
or women. Krasheninnikov [4] was the first to call attention to this.
‘It is observed, whenever they have eaten of this plant, they maintain
that, whatever foolish things they did, they only obeyed the com-
mands of the mushroom.’ (We quote from the i8th century rendering
by James Grieve.) Jochelson and Bogoraz [21 , 22] ratify this. The former

159

PART THREE - CHAPTER I

writes: ‘The idea of the Koryak is that a person drugged with agaric
fungi does what the spirits residing in them {wapaq) tell him to do;'
and the latter: ‘The spirits of the fly-agaric have an outward appear-
ance similar to that of the actual mushrooms, and the agaric-eater
feels impelled to imitate them.’ The Koryak and Kamchadal tales
that we reprint are shot through with this personification of the mush-
room. Among the Ob-Ugrians Lehtisalo [24] observ-es the same
phenomenon. The mushroom eater enters the realm of the little
people, talks with them, learns from them what he wishes to know -
the future, the outlook for a sick person, etc. Among the Ob-Ugrians
the divine mushroom seems to have retained more of its sacred
character. It plays a role in the myths of creation and, as we have
seen, there are vestiges of stern tabus on its use by unqualified
persons.

Of all the properties of the fly-agaric as it is used in Siberia, the one
that has drawn the most attention is its effect on the urine of the per-
son who eats it. The inebriating virtue of the mushroom passes into
the urine, whence the custom in the Chukotka of drinking the urine.
This is amply confirmed by all our best sources and there can be no
doubt about its truth. No one knows to this day the chemical com-
position of the inebriant. No one can say whether the drug in the
mushroom is identical to the drug in the urine. Perhaps alien elements
in the mushroom, such as sometimes cause nausea, are filtered out
in the urine. To von Langsdorf [lo] alone goes the credit of having
asked some of these questions:

1 was not able to ascertain whether the consumption of fly-agaric is

followed by constipation or diarrhoea or by an increase or decrease

in the urine.

I was also unable to obtain any satisfactory answer when 1 asked
whether the taste or smell of the urine had been change , e\ eryone
was probably ashamed to admit that he had drunk his »'™
someone else’s. Nevertheless it strikes me as not improbable that
fly-agarics, like turpentine, asparagus, and other things, ™P*''
special, possibly quite pleasant, smell and taste to the urme By
aLlogy it would be worth investigating whether other narcotic

i6o

esp^'C’i.v tor zzi z\-izir:c. cr.

.ev ir:er..i:£ :ne“'j^_v

Reiz-etr hive i v-ssicT. for unr:e ir.z err^cillv huri'.ir u“e \\ ■ :

h’dir.aa 'criiie ii irr.rre-^.::ei ufO: r'v-i^ir.c. ~<r:iz i recil c"e
there, to be served to = uvctirei reir.deer: i:eher ^h: sr^v;
behind in SiberU when Krisheninrikov [.i] remmed :o Rui^i wii h
^ to call art en non to tins. Von L.mci'drr: [:;] hne L—rorTinoe
this and quotes Meller m £xnr--.v on Erman [n] hears r.iererie:
witness to the laots in an astonishing rara^anh. Bc'Crraz [an] <tre^
the pas^%a of the reindeer tor human unne. which L< likelv :o make
•^^^^^crous to relieve oneself in the open when there are reinie
srouni The curious account of the death of rwo reindeer even :
Saiychev tSl. slightly garbled though i: must be. seenns to relate ;

ici

PART THREE • CHAPTER I

the same phenomenon. Before I had read Steller (5] and Erman [11], I
made my suggestion on pp.75-76 that living as some of these tribesmen
do in intimacy with the reindeer, almost in a symbiotic relationship
with them, they may have found it easy to indulge in the drinking of
the urine in imitation of the beasts. Here then would be the genesis of
the urine-drinking that has astonished the West.

What is the relationship between the hallucinogenic mushrooms of
Middle America and the fly-agaric complex of Siberia?

The mushrooms are utterly different. The fly-agaric is an Amanita.
The sacred mushrooms in Mexico are far removed, belonging to the
Psilocybe, Stropharia. and Conocybe genera, these genera being
closely inter-related. The drugs in the Mexican mushrooms are psi-
locybin and psilocin. We do not know what the drug is in the fly-
agaric, or perhaps the drugs. The Mexican mushrooms keep one
awake for about four or five hours, and then one falls into a deep,
dreamless slumber for a couple of hours ; there is no hangover. Though
one remains awake and experiences hallucinations, one has little or no
desire to move about. There is no macropsia. At the very moment
one can talk about the marvels that one sees, and exchange comments
with one’s neighbors, but there is no kinetic agent in the mushrooms.
By contrast, in Siberia some tribesmen feel an urge to talk loudly or
shout and sing, to dance, to run about, to perform feats of physical
activity. In Siberia stress is laid on the visions one has during a
profound sleep that, according to most of our sources, comes at the
end of ten or twelve hours, and also during the waking hours that

follow.

There is one point of similarity. In each case nausea and vomiting
occasionally occur in some persons. When the mushrooms act as an
emetic immediately or a few minutes after they are ingested, it is
a remarkable fact that in both cases the vomiting has no effect on
the later inebriation. I have experienced this myself in Mexico. Von
Langsdorf [to] is our witness for Siberia:

. . . people who have eaten a large quantity of mushrooms often

suffer an attack of vomiting. The rolled-up mushrooms previously

162

THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

swallowed whole arc then vomited out in a swollen, large, and
gelatinous form, but even though not a single mushroom remains
in the stomach, the drunkenness and stupor nevertheless continue,
and all the symptoms of fly-agaric eating are, in fact, intensified.

There is a striking similarity in the imaginative world of the Mexi-
can Indians and the tribesmen of Siberia: both have created a com-
munity of dwarfs who take over. In Mexico the mushrooms command.
They speak through the ctinindero or shaman. He is as though not
present. The mushrooms answer the questions put to them about the
sick patient, about the future, about the stolen money or the missing
donkey. The mushrooms take the fornt of dneinies, to use the Spanish
term ; dwarfs in English. Similarly the eater of fly-agarics comes under
the command of the mushrooms, and they are personified as amanita
girls or amanita men, the size of the fly amanita.

If I am asked whether there is any genetic relationship between the
two areas in the light of the similar mushroom practices, I should say
that to harbor such a thought would be hazardous. The Indians of the
New World have shown themselves supreme in the arts of the
herbalist, discovering properties in the plant kingdom from which
we Europeans have learned much. The Indians were certain to discover
the divine mushrooms (as they think them to be) and it was natural,
given their cultural background, that they should personify them as
tiiiendes and think they were speaking through the shaman’s words.
The same thing was true with the Siberian tribesmen. Both cults are,
in my opinion, thousands of years old and autonomous in origin.

163

A FAR-REACHING SIBERIAN WORD-CLUSTER

A remarkable pattern of linguistic evidence marks the fungal vo-
cabular)' of many Siberian tribes and the European peoples. Specialists
in the Uralic family of languages have greatly contributed to the
Uralic aspect of this problem, but no first class scholar has dealt with
the linguistic and cultural aspects of the entire pattern of fungal words
that are scattered throughout northern Eurasia from the Iberian
peninsula to Bering Strait. I can do no more than assemble some of
the evidence and pose the questions that call for answers.

I. THE ANTIQUITY OF FLY-AGARIC INEBRIATION

In the Vogul language all words relating to drunkenness are derived
from the word for fly-agaric, pavx, and its innumerable variants ac-
cording to the dialect. This means that Vogul speakers, when they
talk of getting drunk, say that the man is ‘bemushroomed’. But it is
important to note that the Vogul speaker is not aware of the ety-
molog)' of the word: he uses it without thinking of the fly-agaric,
whether the man was ‘bemushroomed’ on alcohol or fly-agaric. This
is similar to our use of the word ‘drunk’. If we say the shaman is
getting ‘drunk’ on fly-agaric, it would not occur to us that he does not
‘drink’ the fly-agaric. If the Vogul speaker says that that foreigner
was ‘bemushroomed’ yesterday on vodka, it never occurs to him that
one drinks alcohol, instead of eating a mushroom. Just as our basic
word in English is a secondary meaning derived from a beverage that
one drinks, so in \’'ogul the basic word is derived from the fly-agaric.
The fly-agaric was the original inebriant and probably the only one.

Vogul is an Ugrian language. In Zyrian (= Komi), a Finnic language,
there are a number of words, p^Jgal-, pagav-, etc., meaning to lose
consciousness as from alcohol. Uotila [34, 38] tells us that they are
derived from *pag-, and are cognate with the Vogul patjx. The Z) rians
do not use the fly-agaric today, but these words would indicate that

their ancestors did so.

164

THE LINGUISTIC ASPECT

It seems certain that these words go back to a time when fermented
drinks (not to speak of their distillate, alcohol) were either not known
at all or were unimportant, to a time when the fly-aganc was t/ie
inebriant. It seems that they go back to a time before the Ugrian and
Finnic languages became differentiated, centuries before Christ.

But our story does not end there. Castren [24a] in the last century
reported the word 'to be drunk', in the Tavgi language,
belonging to the northern Samoyed group. It this attestation is sound,
and Uralic scholars treat it seriously, then the beginnings go back far
indeed. For between the Finno-Ugrian languages and the Samoyed
languages there e.xists precisely the same pi>ot shift that we find

distinguishing the Latin and Germanic languages: e.g.. Latin
English ‘father’. The Tavgi word, manifesting this basic shift, cannot
therefore be a borrowing from Vogul or Zyrian. It goes back to a
common ancestor, before the Uralic peoples divided into the Samoyed
and the proto-Finno-Ugrian. certainly thousands of years before
Christ. We cannot say when the fly-agaric was first used in the north-
ern reaches of Eurasia. We can say. if Castren is to be relied on, that it
was being used when the ancestral tongue of the Uralic peoples split
up. In any case we feel safe in saying, on the evidence supplied by the
Uralic languages, that the fly-agaric was being invoked as a divine
inebriant before the Aryans left their ancestral home and long before
the RgVeda was composed.

2. THE DISTRIBUTION OF FLY-AGARIC INEBRIATION

So far as I know. Franz Boas initiated the accumulation of evidence
on this subject when he pointed out [31] that the three languages of
the Chukchi group, in the far Northeast of Siberia, used for ‘mush-
room’ words whose common root was pov. He made no mention of
such a root in the Ob Valley, and he was probably not aware of it. His
book appeared in 1922 but the materials for it had been accumulated
from the turn of the century.

The Finnish linguist Artturi Kannisto [33I was gathering data among
the Vogul in the first decade of this century. He recorded the names

165

PART THREE • CHAPTER II

pa :vx and p?:vx for the 'fly-agaric’ used by shamans to achieve ecstasy.
His papers were published only in 1958, long after his death. Mun-
kacsi, the Mag)-ar scholar, working in part with collections made in
the second quarter of the last century by Antal Reguly, drew attention
[32] to the Ob-Ugrian and Volga Finnic cluster of fungal words having
identical origin, though in Ob-Ugrian they meant a specific mush-
room, the fly-agaric, whereas in Mordvin and Cheremis they were
generic, ‘mushroom’. He suggested an Iranian word, banha, as cognate
with or the etymon of the Uralic words. At least one of his colleagues,
Lehtisalo [24a], e.vpressed doubt about this, and now that we know
more concerning the Iranian word, Munkacsi’s suggestion seems to
be ruled out. Apparently Lehtisalo in 1928 [24a] was the first to bring
in the Samoyed languages: it was he who drew attention to Castren’s
discovery that in the Tavgi tongue (in the North Samoyed group)
favkd^am means ‘to be inebriated’ and that it must be cognate with
the other words. Uotila in 1930 I34] then added the Southern Samoyed
language, Selkup, seeing in pdver and psvgar, the ‘drum’ and another
musical instrument used by shamans, derivatives of the root pot). He
detects a connection between our cluster and the Zyrian pagal-, etc.,
'to lose consciousness’. Bouda [35] in 1941 confirmed Boas’s findings
for the Chukchi group and he for the first time linked the word for
‘mushroom’ in the far Northeast with the Uralic words that we have
been discussing. Steinitz in 1944 [36] thought that the link with the
Zyrian pagal-, pagyr, meaning ‘to lose consciousness’, etc., was unclear.
In a notable paper Balazs [38] in 1963 summed up the Uralic evidence.
He is inclined to accept Uotila’s judgment on the Zyrian words, rather
than Steinitz’s hesitant position. He is sceptical about Munk^csi s view
concerning an Iranian origin for this cluster, leaving however the last
word to Iranian scholars. Apparently he was unaware of Walter B.
Henning's pronouncement, published in 1951, on the Iranian word

bang. {Vide Eliade [41])

We show the distribution of these tribes in the recent past in our
maps A, B, and C. They have changed their location slowly over the
past centuries, and are now disappearing. The Yukagir, for example,
were once an important people; now they are confined to three shrin

166

CHART OF URALIC LANGUAGES AND OTHERS

Chukchi

CHART OF ORAL.C LANGUAGES AND OTHERS mushroom )

THE LINGUISTIC ASPECT

ing areas. The Finno-Ugrian peoples, on the strength of hngt st c
eUdence as interpreted by ethno-botanists and zoologists, stent to
have had their original hotne in the bend of the Volga Rtver, where
the Mordvin and Cheremis tribes now are. The Ob-Ugnans and t e
linguistic ancestors of the Magyars presumably migrated to the east,
the Magt ars furthest to the East. Later the Magyars under Turco-
Khasar domination migrated West to the Pannonian p am where
they now are. They succeeded in surviving the Turkish domination

and their own language emerged as dominant.

In the chart facing this page we show the linguistic fanulies and the
distribution of the pov cluster. We have even added a time scale but
hasten to add that it is speculative, intended to give some idea of the

linguistic history that we are dealing with.

A number of conclusions seem to emerge from our evidence. The
role of the fly-agaric has been shrinking for centuries. Until a few
generations ago it was deeply rooted in the Ob-Ugnan and Samoyed
cultures, the words related to pov having given to these peoples many
derivatives for ‘inebriation’, the musical instruments of the shaman,
etc. In the tradition reported by Itkonen [23! among the Inari Lapps
that they were once familiar with the fly-agaric as an inebriant, we
get some idea of the wider range that this practice enjoyed. It is to be
inferred from the distribution of the pov root in the Chukotka that
these peoples were once adjacent to the Ob-Ugrians, far to the west,
and that they were pushed into their present location by the infil-
tration of Tungus and Yakut from somewhere to the south. We must
not think of this movement as resulting from wars of conquest to
which precise dates might be given. It is much more likely to have
been a relatively peaceful occupation of inhospitable wastes punctuat-
ed by occasional clashes with the sparse inhabitants. The Tungus
(with the Lamut) and the Yakut have been where they are now for as
far back as we have records. Perhaps a score of centuries have passed
since the peoples of the Chukotka were living adjacent to the Ob-
Ugrians.

The fly-agaric was accessible to man in the forest belt ages before he
knew the art of distillation. For the gathering it was available to him

167

PART THREE • CHAPTER II

probably before he possessed facilities for storing berries and the juice
thereof, and before he had mastered the technique of fermenting
liquors. It is hard to see why the shaman should not have been
resorting to the fly-agaric for inebriation and ecstasy since the receding
ice-cap of the last ice-age permitted him and the birch to exist together
in the northern reaches of Eurasia.

3. THE ‘pop- CLUSTER AMONG THE INDO-EUROPEANS

Now we shift the scene to the Indo-European world and Europe.
In 1901 Holger Pedersen, then a young man and destined to become
one of the leading figures in the comparative study of the Indo-Euro-
pean languages, published a lengthy paper in Polish I39I in which he
found that the Proto-slavic *goHba, the Old Church Slavonic the
Old High German the two Greek variants sphongos and sponge,

and the Latin/ungiis were cognates. The late V. Machek, distinguished
Slavic philologist, accepted this correlation in his Etymologicky Slovnik
(Prague, 1957) of the Czech language. So does Jan Otr?bski, the Polish
philologist, in a paper that he published in 1939 in Vilno entitled
Indogermanische Forschungen, where he gives scores of examples of
the identical metathesis. Among Slavists the weight of evidence is in
favor of this interpretation; only Berneker held that, though Pe-
dersen’s case was tempting, it was ‘unclear’. He did not elaborate.
Boisacq, following Berneker, deduced that the Pedersen thesis should
be discarded.

Professor Roman Jakobson, solicited for his opinion on this matter,
said:

The etymology of Holger Pedersen, the great Danish specialist
in the comparative study of Indo-European languages, seems to
me and to many other linguists, e.g., the distinguished Czech
etymologist V. Machek. as the only convincing attempt to inter-
pret the fiingal name of the European languages. Not one single
serious argument has been brought against Pedersen's ‘attractive
explanation, as Berneker defines it. and not one single defensible
hypothesis has been brought to replace this one.

I. Vide Botanical Leapt, Harvard University, Vol. 19. No - 7 P' f'"-

168

the LINGflSTlC ASPECT

Was not the pov cluster of the Uralic peoples borrowed, perhaps
as far back as Uralic times, from the neighboring Indo-Europeans?
the thesis of this book is right, the Aryans were using the fly-agaric in
their religious rites before they left their homeland. The Indo-lranians
do not possess a word of the pey cluster, because under tabu in-
fluences they had replaced it by Soma or Haoma. and the original

word was lost.‘

But even if this supposition is right, there remains the further
question as to what the original meaning of pov was, and whether
it designated the fly-agaric when it was borrowed. We may take it
for granted that specific meanings precede generic definitions: i.e..
names for individuals or species precede the names for classes of
things. But this is not much help, for mushroom names easily change
their meaning from specific to general, and from the name of one
species to another, and meanings often shift when words go wander-
ing from one people to another.

For the cultural evolution of man, the shamanic use of the fly-
agaric may have been vital, greatly broadening the range of his ex-
perience. making known to him horizons beyond any that he knew in
real life, in short sparking his imagination. But there was another
spark, even more vital for his very survival. We all know the two
ways by which most men generated fire in early times -by percus-
sion, or by rubbing two wooden members together. But not enough
stress has been laid on the primary tinder to catch the spark, a tinder
so inflammable that it bursts into flames at once. The best tinder for
this purpose in northern Eurasia has always been the dried Fomes
,/i>»ientrtnus. This is a shelf fungus most commonly found on birch.
At Maglemose, in diggings that date from soon after the last ice age.
Femes /omeiUtirius has been found close by the hearth stones. At Star
Carr in Yorkshire, in diggings of the same culture but perhaps some-
what earlier. Fogies /omenmriHs, sometimes still attached to the birch

I. R.L. Turner in his Comp. Diet. 0/ !nd>Aryan Ldngitagts, Enir>* 7643, assembles a group of
cognate words in contemporary Indian vernaculars derived from Sanskrit that stem back to the
hypothetical Sanskrit •peggak-. 'mad\ 'madness'. He suggests the possibility of a link to Sanskrit
pMgw. *lame', 'crippled in the legs*, of which the variant forms suggest to Turner a non* Ary an
origin. May these be remote descendants of our pat>X duster?

169

PART THREE • CHAPTER 11

hose, have been found next to iron pyrites and the hearth stones.
These archaeological diggings date back almost to the last ice age,
which began to recede ca. 12,000 B. C. As the ice cap receded and man
pushed his way north, the control of fire defined his range of dif-
fusion. and this touchwood or ‘punk’ (which in the style of this book
we should spell psvk), this amadou or yesca or Zunderschwamm or trut or
^hagra or taplo was what assured him of warmth and a cooked meal.
Perhaps the men of Maglemose or Star Carr, whoever they were, as
they busied themselves about those ancient hearths, were already
calling their tinder ‘punk’. The discovery of Foms fomentarius and the
simple methods of preparing punk for use had marked a long step
forward in man’s material progress and the comforts of human
existence.

NOTE 1. Ismo-kit, written either^ ^ M ^ rn^rnber of the pop

cluster? It is the ordinary market-place word for edible mushrooms
throughout China. The word is not found in classical Chinese. The
earliest citation that I can find is in the Rules of Cooking
written in 1330 and published in 1456. These were compiled by Hu Ssu
Hui,^-,® M.,the senior chef of the Mongol Emperor and himself also
a Mongol. (The Dynasty in 1330 was Mongol.) In Mongolian the same
word in various dialectal forms is also used for mushroom. Philologists
have not been sure which culture borrowed the word from the other.
It seems to me that the circumstances indicate a Chinese borrowing
from Mongolian. The Chinese characters possess different meanings,
but in sound they lent themselves to express the Mongolian word.
In Pekin mo-feu means specifically Tricholoma mongolicum, a delicious
mushroom highly prized all over China, which was and still is im-
ported in large quantities from Mongolia. It is also known as fe ou mo

J|, which means for the Chinese ‘brought through the Kalgan
gate’; in other words, through the Great Wall from Mongolia. With
the passing of time the sense of mo-feu has become general, especially

outside of Pekin.

If then the word is Mongolian, will the Mongolian experts tell us

170

the linguistic aspect

whether mo-k„ could come from ,.ou’ (s)po«go^ > *!«««« >
go(s) > mogu.

NOTE 2 . In 1963 I was visiting New Zealand and on August 6 was in
Rotorua, in the center of the northern island, a Maori community.

I was chatting with an elder of the Maori people. Kcta Ehau. 7-1 years
old at the time. Naturally the subject came around to mushrooms
and he volunteered a story that seemed to him remarkable, and to me
even more so. He had been in Siberia with two Canadians and a South
African during the first world war. in the Government service, and he
found that the natives there were still using touchwood, as the Maons
do in New Zealand. The natives where he was called it piiyke or
piiyfca. This had made an impression on him because in Rotorua the
fungus that serves as touchwood is called pave, without the fc. But of
course vacillation between y and vg or yfe is frequent. This fungus
grows on the rdtti tree, Metrosuieros rolnistii. a member of the myrtle
family. At Ruatoria, on the coast to the east of Rotorua, touchwood is
made from a fungus growing on the tdwyi tree, Nothofagus spp. There
the fungus so used is called pu:finv<i, and pave is unknown.

How strange to find a word that might be a member of the pov
family among the Maori of Rotorua! I looked the word up in Wil-
liams’s A Dictioimry of the Maori Language, of which many editions have
appeared since the first in 1844. Pii.-tawfl was in them all. In the fifth
edition, 1917, I found 'Pange, pangi: tinder, touchwood, made from
spongy fungus.’ In a copy of the fourth edition, 1892, that lies in the
Trumbull Library, Wellington, there are the editor’s notes made in
anticipation of the fifth edition, and among them is this entry written
by hand, probably around 1914.

Ill

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

If I have established my case that Soma was the fly-agaric- that the
amrta of the Aryans was until only yesterday the divine inebriant
still currently consumed by the shamans over vast reaches of Sibe-
ria, then at once the initial steps by which my wife Valentina Pavlov-
na and I started out on our inquiries more than forty years ago take
on relevance and a cutting edge. For we did not begin by looking for
Soma. Decades were to pass before Soma drew my attention. We
started out by accumulating purely European ethno-mycological data,
chiefly philological and folkloric, and those European data led us
twenty years later to make a bold, many would say a wild, surmise:
the striking pattern of our evidence would be understandable if
we postulated a period when a mushroom had played a role in
the religious life of our own remote ancestors, perhaps some 6,000
years ago, millennia before they could read and write, when the
last ice-age was still yielding the frozen wastes to the pioneer food
gatherers. We did not know which mushroom nor why, but it must
have been hedged about with all the sanctions that attend sacred
things in primitive societies. Judging by what we considered vestigial
survivals in our own folkways, it must have been instinct with mana,
an object of awe, of terror, of adoration.

Our later discoveries in Siberia and mine more recently among the
Indo-Iranians were an immediate sequel to those early hesitant
stumbling steps that we were taking in the 1930’s, and they lend
credence to our 'wild surmise’ about our own European ancestors,
for it is unlikely that a foolish misinterpretation of evidence would
lead us to these rich finds. It is therefore in order to re-examine our
early evidence, constituting as it does an exploration into the pre- and

proto-history of our own European stock.

My wife and I embarked on this our intellectual foray late in

August 1927. A little episode started us on our way. Valentina Pav
lovna was Russian, a Muscovite by birth. I was of Anglo-Saxon an

172

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

cestrv We had been married less than a year and we were now off
on our first holiday, at Big Indian in the Catskills. On that first day.
as the sun was declining in the West, we set out for a stroll, the forest
on our left, a clearing on our right. Though we had known each
other for years, it happened that we had never discussed mushrooms
together. All of a sudden she darted from my side. With cries ot
ecstasy she flew to the forest glade, where she had discovered mush-
rooms of various kinds carpeting the ground. Since Russia she had
seen nothing like it. Left planted on the mountain trail. I called to
her to take care, to come back. They were toadstools she was gather-
ing, poisonous, putrid, disgusting. She only laughed the more: I can
hear her now. She knelt in poses of adoration. She spoke to them
with endearing Russian diminutives. She gathered the toadstools in a
kind of pinafore that she was w-earing. and brought them to our
lodge. Some she strung on threads to hang up and dry for winter use.
Others she sensed that night, either with the soup or the meat, ac-
cording to their kind. I refused to touch them. . . . This episode, a
small thing in itself affecting only a peripheral aspect of our busy
lives, led us to make inquiries, and we found that the northern Slavs
know their mushrooms, having learned them at their mother’s knee:
theirs is no book knowledge. They love these tungal growths with a
passion that, viewed with detachment, seemed to me a little exag-
gerated. But we Anglo-Saxons reject them viscerally, with revulsion,
without deigning to make their acquaintance, and our attitude is

even more exaggerated than the Slavs’. Little by little my wife and
1 built up extensive files concerning this modest corner of human
behaviour, not only about the Slavs and Anglo-Saxons but about all
the peoples of Europe, even to the Basques, the Frisians, the Lapps,
and the Albanians.

Years passed. We had reached the 1940’s before we pronounced our
'wild surmise’, and we then gave utterance to it only to each other,
since we were afraid of appearing ridiculous to our friends, perhaps
even a trifle touched. Our evidence was airy and insubstantial, but it
possessed a poetic consistency that carried conviction with us. We
resolved to cast our net further afield and to explore the tribal cultures

173

PART THREE ■ CHAPTER III

of Siberia. What was our amazement when we found, right on the
doorstep of Europe, a mushroom -the fly-agaric - occupying the
center of the stage in the shamanism of many northern tribes. We
were hitting pay dirt and for long we thought we had reached the end
of our road.

In 1952 our attention was diverted to Mexico, where we learned that
there was a mushroom cult to be explored and studied in situ, both
historically through the centuries or even the millennia, and also as a
living anthropological practice in many Amerindian cultures of
Oaxaca, Puebla, and Vera Cruz. The mushrooms used in Mexico
were not the fly-agaric of Siberia and we could not discover any
umbilical cord linking the Mexican and Siberian cults, but we enjoyed
ample opportunity to dissect the modalities of a divine mushroom
inebriant. The ten rainy seasons - 1953 to 1962 - spent in the remote
mountains of Mexico’ were a rewarding experience but they were
only a diversion from our Eurasian preoccupations. In the course of
these years Valentina Pavlovna’s fatal illness manifested itself: she
died on the last day of 1958, in the evening. Meanwhile we had rushed
our Mus/irooms Russia & History into print in May 1957. In it we
expressed our 'wild surmise’ hesitantly, by implication rather than
directly, and not a single reviewer caught it. We were still unwilling
to sponsor openly the notion of a divine mushroom among our own
ancestors. Only one critic, a first-class mycologist, hinted at the point
when he said that we had not succeeded in establishing our theory
as to the origin of 'fly-agaric’.* The scientific mind is prone to measure
evidence by austere scientific standards, by calibrating quantitative
phenomena. But the myths and verbal origins of pre-literate com-
munities are sheer poetry, to be understood only by poets and those
with a gift for the play of imagery. There are values in those societies
that do not lend themselves to quantitative calibration. This is where
our critic went wrong. We were certain that the fly of divine pos
session was the fly of the fly-agaric, and this fly has now led me to

Soma.

1. These expediiions remain to be written up and I plan to do this in the coming years.

2. R. W. G. Dennis: Kew Bulletin. No. 3, I9S7 (1958): PP- 392-395.

174

ELROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

I do not recall when the Soma possibility hrst drew my attention:
it was certainly after our first book went to press. .\ly wile had net cr
heard of the Soma mystery. My brother Tom and 1. we had been
told about Soma by our father in the first decade ot this centur\ , ui
in mv case the question had lain dormant in the depths of sleeping
memory until the ’ 50 ’s. From i955 on I uas in intermittent cor-
respondence with Aldous Huxley, and often when he visited New
York he would come down to Wall Street and have lunch with me.
Perhaps it was he who revived my interest in this strange historical
enigma. One day he and I were discussing the hallucinogens/ and I
remember tossing out the fanciful suggestion that Soma might prove
to be the flv-agaric. and describing to him the red and yellow phases
of this remarkable mushroom, and its role in Siberia, with which I
think he was already acquainted. 1 knew nothing about Soma at
that time, and to aspire to the Soma secret was to be reaching lor the
moon. When Tlie /sLiiid appeared some years later, 1 was surprised to
discover that Huxley had set his stor\- in an Indian setting, with ^iva
being worshipped and voga being practiced, and the drug that is the
focus of the cult in the stor\- is a yellow mushroom, surely the yellow
fly-agaric: Huxlevsays expressly that it is the yellow mushroom rather
than the red one on which gnomes sit! In his ston' he was coming
close to the truth: he possessed the poet’s intuition. Later, in ‘Culture
and the Individual’ Huxley explained* that he had had in mind the
mushrooms that yield psilocybin, the Mexican mushrooms that my
wife and I had played a part in rediscovering and making known to
the world. ... I remember that in these same years, in the late

j. At this particular Huxlev luncheon Stephan F. de Borhcg>i was also present. . . . Hallucinogen
and ‘hallucinogenic’ >scre words coined by a group of physidans preoccupied with these mysterious
drugs - Abram Hoffer, Humphrey Osmond, and John Smythies in America, and Donald Johnson
in England. To Johnson goes priority. In 1053 he brought out a pamphlet. The Hallunncgmu: Drugs,
published by Christopher Johnson in London. But he says he picked up the word from the oihen,
who however did not get into print until Januaiy- 1954. in an article on 'Schizophrenia: A New
Approach’, in The jeurrui of Slenui Hralrk. London, Vol. C The word quickly took hold and now
trips off even*one*s longue os though U had been used for generations. The uninitiated layman is
apt to think of the halludnogens os merely a new* kind of alcohol but by devising a fresh name the
radical difference is esiablished from the start. For those who know their effects, 'halludnogens'
may seem inadequate but it tits so long as one remembers that the hallucinations affect all the
senses and also the emotions.

1. Vide supra, p. 146.

175

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

’50’s, I also discussed the Soma problem with Mr. John P. C. Train, of
New York.

After my conversations with Huxley and about the time when The
Island appeared, in 1962, but before I had read it, in July, I engaged
Wendy Doniger to write a precis of the Soma question, and she sub-
mitted her report on Februar)- 16, 1963. It was 33 pages of single-spaced
typescript. In it she called my special attention to RgVeda ix 74*, where
the priests urinate Soma. This had astonished her and left her non-
plussed: little did she suspect what it would mean for me, with my
Siberian background. Her report lay dormant for months until I
finally retired from my bank at the end of June of that year and
translated myself to the Orient for a stay of some years.

I shall begin by saying where in Europe’s past I have not found the
cult of a sacred mushroom.

1. Mushrooms do not figure in the various witchcraft epidemics
that raged in Europe in the late mediaeval and renaissance times.
The evidence here is voluminous and circumstantial, extending from
Spain CO Hungary and from France to Scotland and Sweden. That a
role for mushrooms is never mentioned seems to me conclusive.

2. I have found no mushrooms in the records that we possess of the
shadow)^ Druids. Our sources are meager. If we knew more, mush-
rooms might figure, but the evidence now is negative.

3. In Viking times, from the 8th to the loth centuries, there was a
special category of the Viking warriors known as the Berserks. Big
powerful men, they fought in the forefront of the battle with a wild
fury. They would ‘go berserk’ and this berserk-raging made them
famous and feared. Today the belief prevails in certain Scandinavian
circles that this berserk-raging was provoked by the fly-agaric. In
Sweden and Norway even text-books and encj'clopaedias assert this
as a fact. Samuel Odman, a Swede, first propounded [43] the idea in

176

EUROPE AND THE ELY-AOARIC

,784 deriving the notion from the accounts of travellers in Siberia
earlier in the century. He cites Georgi [6] and Steller [5], and there is
every reason to assume that he knew von Strahlenberg [3] and Kra-
sheninnikov [4I also. A century later, in 1886. Frednk Christian Schube-
ler, a Norwegian, expressed the same view. In Exhibits [43I throng
U61 we give in translation the principal statements in favor of the
fly-agaric, for the reader to pass on their merit. The opposition has not
been without able advocates, notably Fredrik Gron. a specialist in
the medical history of Norway, and Magnus Olsen, the authority on
Norse traditions and literature.

Certain it is, in my opinion, that the fly-agaric was not used by the
Berserks, and no time should be lost in expunging this yarn from the

reference books. My reasons are two-fold.

First. The fly-agaric is never mentioned in the Sagas or Eddas. Of
the fungal world only punk or touchwood (kiiosk and dialectal vari-
ants thereof) appears in them. No mysterious or unidentified plant
plays a part in the berserk-raging. The early historians Saxo Gram-
maticus and Olaus Magnus made no mention of any such agent.
There is no record of an oral tradition antedating the 19th century of
such a practice. Odman said expressly that he was basing his view
on Georgi’s [ 6 ] and Steller's [5I account of the Siberian shamanic
usage.

The advocates of the fly-agaric as the cause of berserk-raging are
constrained to place excessive weight on a shadowy episode alleged to
have taken place in 1814. The story goes that in a brief war between
Norway and Sweden the Swedish soldiers of the Varmland regiment
were seen by their officer to be seized by a raging madness, foaming
at the mouth. On inquiry the officer is said to have learned that the
soldiers had eaten of the fly-agaric, to whip up their courage to a
fighting pitch. But this episode has not been substantiated. On No-
vember I, 1918, a Swedish physiologist named Carl Th. Morner read
a paper on the higher fungi before a learned society in Upsala. In the
oral discussion that followed the paper a meteorologist, H. Hilde-
brandsson, disclosed for the first time the story of the Varmland
regiment. Later, when Momer published his paper, he cited what

177

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

Hildebrandsson had said, and this is our only evidence for what had
happened. But Morner did not seize the opportunity, at that time
possibly available, to ascertain Hildebrandsson’s source and to confirm
his story with additional details. No one has ever heard of the episode
other than from Hildebrandsson’s account told offhand, in the dis-
cussion that followed a lecture, more than a century after the event
and half a century ago. Bo Holmstedt, Professor of Toxicology at the
Karolinska Institute of Stockholm, has lately made rigorous efforts
to verify it in Varmland or elsewhere, without success. We must
remember that Professor Hildebrandsson was speaking outside the
field of his special competence and was merely contributing to an oral
discussion.

Second. The symptoms of fly-agaric inebriation are the opposite
of berserk-raging, and the Norwegians and Swedes who imagine that
they are the same would do well to read Exhibits [i] through [38].
The effect of the fly-agaric is soothing, comforting, quieting, tranquil-
lizing. At one stage there is a feeling of physical exhilaration, but
in our case-histories there is not a single report of wild bellicosity. In
an heroic hymn [30] of the Vogul a myth is told: the Hero has con-
sumed three sun-dried fly-agarics and is lying in a stupor. A messenger
rushes in. announces the imminent approach from the North of the
fearful Mocking-bird Host with the red rump, and calls on the Two-
Belted One to go forth and fight. But though the enemy is at the very
gate, our Hero says he cannot stir because of his inebriation, and sends
off the messenger to seek out his two younger brothers. The peril
grows desperate and the messenger, returning, implores the Hero
to fight. This time he throws off his inebriation, sallies forth, and
slays the enemy right and left. The testimony of the myth only
confirms what the travelers tell us over and over again. Not one of
them describes a syndrome corresponding in the remotest degree to
berserk-raging.

4. At the session of the Societe Mycologique de France held on
October 6, 1910, there was presented to the attendance a photograph
of a Romanesque fresco from a disaffected chapel that had belonge

178

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

to the Abbave de Plaincourault in the center of France. It was later
the subject of a note published on pp. 31-33. Vol. xxvii, ot the B.d/etu.
of the Societe. The fresco, crude and faded, is of the familiar tempt-
ation scene in the Garden of Eden. The gentlemen who presented the
fresco to the Societe Mycologique made the sensational statement
ihat. instead of the customary Tree, the artist had given us the fl\-
agaric. A serpent was entwined around a gigantic fly-aganc and was
engaged in a colloquy with Eve.

The interpretation put on the fresco by the mycologists has made
an impression on their colleagues, particularly in England. Thus
John Ramsbottom endorses the fungal message in Mus/iroi)iHS
Toadstools' and in A Handbook of the Larger Britis/i Fungi also R. T. and
F. W. Rolfe, in T/ie Romance of the Fungus World;’ The Illustrated London
News, Nov. 21. 1953; finally. Frank H. Brightman more recently in
T/ie Oxford Book of Flowerless Plants, in 1966.* My wife and I visited the
Plaincourault chapel on August 2. 1952. It is in the Berry, between
Ingrandes and Merigny. facing the Val de I’Anglais. hard by the
Chateau of Plaincourault. The Chapel bears the date 1291 and the
fresco must come down from that time or thereabouts. On April 2,
1959. Mme Michelle Bor)-, of the Museum National d’Histoire Na-
turelle. visited the chapel at my request, and made the copy of the
fresco that we offer our readers in Pl.vte xxi.

The mycologists would have done well to consult arc historians.
Here is an extract from a letter that Ei^vin Panofsky wrote me in 1952:

... the plant in this fresco has nothing whatever to do with
mushrooms . . . and the similarity with Amuniw muscuria is purely
fortuitous. The Plaincourault fresco is only one example -and.
since the style is provincial, a particularly deceptive one -of a
conventionalized tree ty-pe, prevalent in Romanesque and early
Gothic art, which art historians actually refer to as a ‘mushroom
tree’ or in German, Pilzbaum. It comes about by the gradual sche-
matization of the impressionistically rendered Italian pine tree in

1. Collins. London, 1953, pl* P* ^ 4 •

2. British Museum, London, 1949. p. 26 ,

3. Chapman Hall. London, 1915, p. 291.

4 . p. 112 .

179

PART THREE - CHAPTER III

Roman and Early Christian painting, and there are hundreds of
instances exemplifying this development - unknown of course to
mycologists. . . . What the mycologists have overlooked is that the
medieval artists hardly ever worked from nature but from classical
prototypes which in the course of repeated copying became quite
unrecognizable.

Professor Panofsky gave expression to what I have found is the
unanimous view of those competent in Romanesque art. For more
than half a century the mycologists have refrained from consulting
the art world on a matter relating to art. Art historians of course do
not read books about mushrooms. Here is a good example of the
failure of communications between disciplines.

The misinterpretation both of the Plaincourault fresco and of
berserk-raging must be traced to the recent dissemination in Europe
of reports of the Siberian use of the fly-agaric. I think the commen-
tators have made an error in timing: the span of the past is longer
than they have allowed for, and the events that they seek to confirm
took place before recorded history began.

Traditionally the European peoples vary like night and day in their
attitude toward wild mushrooms. There are two areas that are on
excellent terms with them. The northern Slavs and Lithuanians, and
the Mediterranean littoral from Majorca and Catalonia to Provence
and including apparently the whole of the lan^ue doc area of France,
these are the areas where wild mushrooms are considered friends,
where children gather them for fun before they can read and write,
where no adult feels the need of a mushroom-manual, where im-
mense quantities of mushrooms are prepared for the table in in-
numerable ways, and where accidents are unknown. The gentle art of
mushroom-knowing is a universal accomplishment. Mushrooms are a
conversation piece among men and women. Novelists introduce them
into their narratives, poets into their verses; and they recur in prover
and ditties. Moreover - and here is the telling thing - all the references

are friendly, favorable, wholesome.

180

Plvh* XXI • Fresco ot Plaincourauh. Abbasc Jc Plaincouraiilt. McrijiON, InJic,
fadnp the \\\\ de l Anglais, in the Berry. (Copied April 2 , ig59. b\ Mnie Michelle
Rorv, staff nteniber of the Laboratoire de C.ryptogainie.

Museum National d Hisioire Naturclle. Paris)

««•••••••••••

T ^

»«••»«••»«••» ss ;<:

•mmm

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

On the other hand the Germanic and Celtic peoples arc infected
with a virulent mycophobia. coming down from prc-lnstory. In re-
cent generations there has been some improvement as the traveled
and educated classes have begun to spread a diflerent gospel, and as
groups of zealous mushroom amateurs have begun to leaven the mass
of the population. The criterion by which to judge this aspect of a
people's culture is the pronouncements of the older writers and of
the untutored country folk. The educated element does not ofler a pure
strain of the native ways. In AlHs/iroeins Kussui C- Historv we presented
an anthology of many such expressions and I have assembled other
quotations since that book appeared. Here I shall cite only a few.

The English people to begin with had no name lor a mushroom
that would permit them to eat it: ‘toadstool’ was our chief word and
one does not eat a toadstool. The Court under French influence in the
15th century introduced Miousseren, which became mushroom , and
from then on the English, or at least a few of the more enlightened
ones, could consume one or two species. But even the French were
unenthusiastic. The Crete H^rball of isi 6 , a translation from the
French, voices the hostility of both peoples:

. . . Fungi ben mussherons . . . There be two maners of them: one
maner is deedly and sleeth them that eateth of them and be called
tode stooles, and the other dooth not. They that be not deedly hauc a
grosse gleymy [slimy] moysture that is dysobedyent to nature and
dygestyon, and be peryllous and dredfull to eate & therefore it is
good to eschew them.

So mushrooms are of two classes, those that are deadly and those

that had best be eschewed. In Diderot’s Encyclopedie the Enlightenment
had not yet spread to mycophagy:

But whatever dressing one gives to [mushrooms], to whatever
sauce our Apiciuses put them, they are really good but to be sent
back to the dung heap where they are born.'

I. Anicle on Champignons by Louis dc Jacoun, I7S3 : quclquappret quon Icur donne, i quelquc

sauce que nos .Vpicius les puissent mettre. ils nc sont bons riclcment qu'i ^tre ^cnvoy^s sur le fumicr
ou Us naissent.

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PART THREE • CHAPTER III

For Keats, in Endyimon a 'fungous brood’ sends up. 'sickly and pale,
Chill mushrooms coloured like a corpse’s cheek.’ Tennyson makes
one of his heroines, Lynetce, turn away from Gareth as though she
smelled ‘a foul-flesh’d agaric’, deeming it ‘carrion of some woodland
thing’. Spenser in The Sheplieanies Calendar identified the ‘grieslie
Todestool’ with winter, and so does Shelley, thus also doing violence
to nature, in The Sensitive Plant:

And agarics and fungi, with mildew and mould,

Started like mist from the wet ground cold;

Pale, fleshy, as if the decaying dead
With a spirit of growth had been animated !

Their moss rotted off them, flake bv flake.

Till the thick stalk stuck like a murderer’s stake,

Where rags of loose flesh yet tremble on high,

Inspecting the winds that wander by.

Montaigne, that giant of the Renaissance, pouring forth the rich
contents of his mind and feelings in his Essays, ignores the fungal
world. Here is a son of Perigord who never mentions truffles. Rabelais
presents to his readers an obnoxious character called Lent-observer
who has a potiron, mushroom, for a chin, and whose excrement con-
sists of morels and toadstools. There is never a kind word for mush-
rooms in Rabelais, this native of Chinon in the heart of France. So far
as I know, neither Chaucer nor Milton mentioned them, and Shake-
spere barely.

For the modern poets mushrooms are unchanged. Emily Dickinson
repeats the old refrain:

Had nature any outcast face,

Could she a son contemn,

Had nature an Iscariot,

That mushroom - it is him.

Or D. H. Lawrence in How Beastly the Bourgeois Is.

How beastly the bourgeois is
especially the male of the spedes -

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EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

Nicely groomed, like a mushroom

scanding there so sleek and erect and eycable -

and like a fungus, living on the remains of bygone life,

sucking his life out of the dead leaves of greater life than hts own.

And even so, he's stale, he’s been there too long.

Touch him, and you’ll find he’s all gone inside

just like an old mushroom, all wormy inside, and hollow

under a smooth skin and an upright appearance.

Full of seething, wormy, hollow feelings
rather nasty -

How beastly the bourgeois is!

Standing in their thousands, these appearances, in damp England
what a pity they can’t all be kicked over
like sickening toadstools, and left to melt back, swiftly
into the soil of England.

The poets invoke mushrooms only when they seek a loathsome figure
of speech. Of course mushrooms decay, but why pick on mushrooms?
Everything that lives will rot. The poets never see the infinitely subtle,
fresh colouration, quivering with life, of the mushroom vvorld, vary-
ing from species to species and from individual to individual; the
delicate softness of their texture, their shapes, graceful, grotesque; the
aroma of each species different from all others, conveying by its scent
its own proper signature.

Wild fungi are an emotional trip-hammer for mycophile and my-
cophobe alike, and in the poets with their heightened sensibilities the
contrast in the response to fungi is sharpest. Professor Roman Jakobson
was spending the summer of 1919 in Pushkino, near Moscow, with
the poet Vladimir Majakovskij, who would go out almost daily into
the forest to look for mushrooms. He would usually return with a
large basket-full of them. He knew them all and where to look for
every kind. He told his companion that mushroom gathering offered
the ideal accompaniment for the composition of poetry, and in the
course of that summer he composed the best parts of his epic, ijo
Million, while engaged in this pastime. During the previous season, in

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PART THREE • CHAPTER III

1918. he had conceived his play Mystery Bouffe in the woods among
the mushrooms.

In the beginning the Germanic world was steeped in darkest my-
cophobia. Certainly nowhere in European literature is there a more
perfect expression of loathing for mushrooms - all the more eloquent
because taken for granted - than in the writings of Saxo Grammaticus,
the Danish historian who flourished about A. D. 1200. He was telling
of a military campaign \vaged in Sweden by Hadding the Dane in the
loth century, and how the Danes ran out of provisions, and were
driven to the last extremities of hunger. Here in Book r: vii: 7 of his
Sflxonis Gesta Danorum we discover the low opinion in which the
Danes of olden times held wild mushrooms:

. . . After the spring thaw, Hadding returned to Sweden and there
spent five years in warfare. By reason of this lengthy campaign, his
soldiers, having consumed all their provisions, were reduced virtu-
ally to starvation, and resorted to forest mushrooms to satisfy their
hunger. Finally under pressure of extreme necessity they ate their
horses, and in the end they satisfied themselves with the carcasses of
dogs. Even worse, they did not scruple to eat human limbs.

Now that the passing centuries have dimmed for us the personal
sufferings of Hadding’s host, we may permit ourselves to be amused
by the graduated stages of their desperation as reflected in their diet,
and our thoughts turn to what soldiers of other origins would have
done in a like pass. Had they been Celts, they would surely have
eaten horses, dogs, and each other before turning to the foul fungi of
the forest. If they had been Slavs of the North, they would have been
feasting on those noble mushrooms from the outset of their long
campaign, and. fortified by the delectable fare, would have engaged
the enemy like lions, and most certainly turned the tide of war. Until
General Bernadotte. a son of Pau in the Pyrenees who became King of
Sweden, spoke well of ceps, neither Lapps nor Swedes ate mushrooms.
We know this because Linnaeus tells us so. In the section on the fungi
in his Flora Lapponka, he observes that in Sweden only forei^ers
consider mushrooms fit for eating, nor does he except himself from
the general rule. What a pity that the great Linnsus was a my-

184

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

cophobe! It is said that when he was naming the famous LncMniis
,ielici05i,s. he thought he was naming a Lactarius of the Mediterranean
that had been described to him as excellent eating: he thought the
specimen before him was the same hfcmisf it smelled its tlierigli it oiiglit

ro fiJ-'ite gooil.

Members of a community observing a tabu are far from sensing that
it is a tabu. Their obedience to the tabu is in the natural order of
things. It lies along the grain of the wood. As i am writing for the
English-speaking world. I fear my readers will put aside my book,
saying: ‘The poor idiot just doesn’t know you may get poisoned from
mushrooms. Come, what’ll it he, a highball or a Martini? The
breathtaking aspect of it is the unanimity of the witnesses. Those
from mycophilic peoples are invariably mycophile; those from my-
cophobic races are invariably mycophobe. The only exceptions are
those who have traveled and read widely, and because they have
traveled, at least intellectually, they are not really exceptions. In the
i92o’s and i93o‘s this subject was a frequent conversation piece in
gatherings frequented by White Russians, but it was only table-talk.
My wife and I thought it deserved better than that. Today everyone
is aware that deep-seated emotional attitudes acquired in early life
are of profound importance. It seems to me that when such traits
betoken the attitudes of whole tribes or peoples, and when those
traits have remained unaltered throughout recorded history, and
expecially when they differ sharply from one people to a neighboring
people, then you are face to face with a phenomenon of profound
cultural importance, whose primal cause is to be discovered only in
the well-springs of cultural history. In this instance we are exploring
from the inside (not through cave paintings or mute archaeological
artifacts) one aspect of the religious life of our ancestors in proto-
histor)'.

‘Toadstool’ is an astonishing folk-word. For centuries it has in-
capsulated the inspissated loathing and fear of the English-speaking
people for wild mushrooms. For the Englishman, as commonly used

185

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

ic means any mushroom he does not know and therefore distrusts,
which means all or almost all wild mushrooms. One of the two most
important words in the fungal vocabulary^ of Europe, it has neverthe-
less lost almost everywhere its application to a particular species. For
the sinister mark of the toad is not confined to the English fungal
vocabulary. You will find it in Norwegian and Danish, though not
in Swedish; in Low German. Dutch, and Frisian; in Breton, Welsh,
and Irish. It cannot be translated into standard French, and the other
Romance languages know it not. Nor does it survive in standard High
German, though it lingers on in High German dialects. Thus the
citadel of the ‘toadstool’ is in the ring of peoples who dwell around
the shores of the North and Irish Seas, a gigantic and evil fairy-ring,
as it were, embracing the surviving Celts, many of the Germanic
peoples, provincial France (where the ‘toad’ figure may have come
down from the Gauls), and the Spanish Basque country of Guipuzcoa
and Biscay. The Bretons, let it be remembered, emigrated from
Britain to their present home across the Channel in the fifth and
sixth centuries after Christ, and are thus remote heirs, folkwise, of
old Britain.

Not all of these peoples use the figure of the toad’s stool. The
Norwegians and Danes speak of the toad’s hat; the Low Germans, of
the frog’s stool; the Dutch say toad’s stool; and the Frisians refer to
an old fungus as a toad’s hide. The Irish term is the frog s pouch; the
Welsh, toad’s cheese: the Bretons, toad’s cap, but by the addition of
a single initial sibilant, their term becomes toad’s stool, and this is a
recognized variant in their language. Here are the words in these
tongues; in Norwegian and Danish, paddehaf, in Low German, pog-
gensroftl; in Dutch, paddestoel; in Frisian, podde/iild: in Irish, bolglosgainn,
with bolg meaning pouch; in Welsh, caws llyffant, with caws meaning
cheese ; in Breton, kabell msec, and also skabell msec. The Pennsylvania
Dutch speak a dialect of High German that comes down from the
language of the Palatinate in the i8th century, and in Pennsylvania
Dutch we find both toad’s stool and toad’s foot: grottestuhl and grotte-
fuss. We know that toad’s bread, pain de crapault, was used for wild
fungi in i6th century France, and this same expression has been re-

186

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

ported in modern times in the Calvados region of Normandy. Ml
these names hinging on the toad seem indeHnite in their application,
and all of them are pejorative. But there are two contiguous or almost
contiguous areas that give the term specihc meaning. The fly-aganc
is called crapd.uin. in many parts of France and in the lorm gr<ip<uuidni
this word has been reported as far south as the Herault. on the Med-
iterranean. In the Basque of Guipuzcoa and Biscay the fly-agaric is
the (imoroto. the precise equivalent of crtjpuudin. the toad-like thing .
Often the peripheral cultures of the world preserve archaic traits and
meanings better than the throughways of trade and communication,
and when we find that the toad is linked to the fly-agaric in Basque
and in French provincial usage, our attention is alerted.

All these words, in varying degrees, e.xhale a bad odor. Tliey de-
signate wild fungi that the speaker considers, rightly or wrongly,
inedible and dangerous. The English toadstool, freighted with evil, is
typical of the class. In the dialects of England there arc numerous
variants, and these are interesting because they echo the figures of
speech that arc current in our list of foreign words. Thus we find
toadchecse or taddecheese. toad s bread, toad s cap or toadskep, and
toad’s meat. For the toad itself there is an ancient variant, pad or
paddock, which gives us paddock-stool and puddock-stool. This pad
is the same word for toad that the Dutch and Frisians, the Norwegians
and Danes, use. This is the witches’ word in the opening scene of
Mticfcd/i:

Padock calls anon: faire is foule, and foulc is faire.

Hover through the fogge and filthie ayre.

Here in our argument we interrupt its course for a necessary di-
version.

Today civilized men have a kindly feeling for the toad. Lewis
Carroll and Kenneth Grahame have planted the seeds of their benign
influence in the minds of successive generations of well brought up
English-speaking children. The Victorians were inclined to foster
sympathy for the whole animal world. (Was this because the indus-
trial revolution released increasing numbers of men from slavery to

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PART THREE • CHAPTER III

the soil, from intimate conflict with cantankerous nature?) As for
the toad, there has been an additional influence: men of science have
undertaken to show that it is the farmer s friend.

Far different was the repute of the toad in times past. There was no
other member of the animal kingdom that inspired such revulsion
and fear. Chaucer spoke of the 'foule tode’, and Spenser of the loathly
and venomous toad. 'A pad in the straw’ was what our ancestors said
when they meant ‘a nigger in the woodpile’. (Now that this last phrase
is banned in polite society and perhaps vanishing, why not revive the
earlier expression?) Shakespere reveled in the toad as a potent term
of abuse. In Richard III the toad is a recurring theme, as is fitting for a
play about a king described as:

That bottel’d Spider, that foule bunch back’d Toad.

Among all of Shakespere’s many references to the toad, there is not
one that is neutral, much less friendly. Edgar in King Lear denounces
Edmund as 'a most toad-spotted traitor’; and the witches in Macbeth,
when they concoct their hellish brew, give to the toad pride of place
in the cauldron:

Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights hast thirty-one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got.

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

Not only were toads venomous; to the medieval mind they were also
a symbol of lechery, as were warts and moles, with which toads were
supposed to be covered.

The evil repute of the toad is not yet dead. There are English circles
where ‘Toad!’ flung in anger would be a fighting insult now. The
derivative 'toady’ brings to mind the sycophantic and hypocritical
squat of the creature, with its upturned watchful eyes. The bad name
of the toad survives among untutored countryfolk in England and the
United States, where farmers cling to the belief that the spittle of
toads is poisonous, and that warts will grow on the skin where a toad
has touched. French peasants down to recent times, and perhaps even

i88

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

now, put toads to death by methods shocking for their cruelty, meth-
ods that reveal an ingenuity in torture ordinarily reserved by man tor

his fellow-man.'

The unpleasant abuse heaped on the toad, as well as the serpent,
seems to have been a fruit of Christianity. In Old French le bet was a
name for Satan, resorted to as an evasive term, a word derived trom a
Germanic root, meaning the club-footed one. or the splay-footed, or
the limping one. (Among Satan's traditional attributes was a bad toot
causing him to limp.) That same word bet was a designation also for
the toad and the toadstool, constituting thus a sinister trinity linked
together in verbal identity. In the Carpathians and the Ukraine the
toad theme recurs in the mushroom vocabulary in conjunction with
the ‘mad-mushroom’. which as we shall see can be traced to the fly-
agaric, povx. ptWX, of the Ostyak. Surprisingly, in China the common
name for the fly-agaric is bu-mii c/n'iii, toad-mushroom ;*

in that country suffering from deforestation the fly-agaric today is
found chiefly in Manchuria, along the Amur River. But the foul
reputation of the toad in Western Europe is absent, significant!)', in
Russia and China.

One asks oneself why the early Churchmen in the West convicted
the toad of heinous crimes. Was it because the toad occupied an
honoured place in the Pagan pantheon? So it seems. In a remarkable
paper’ Marija Gimbutas has shown how paganism lingered on in
Lithuania long after it had disappeared elsewhere, until the last
century, and one can study the surviving practices there. The Lithu-
anian peasants in the conser\'ative areas continued to regard toads
and snakes gently, encouraging them to live in their homes and con-
sidering their welcome presence a happy augury. Only a hundred
years ago these peasants were still making wooden grave markers
carved in the shape of stylized birds and of toad’s hind legs (Fig. 6).
Professor Gimbutas shows her readers prehistoric pottery from central
Europe with the toad motif incised on the clay (Fig. 7 ). The toad

1. Vide U Fclklore de France, by Paul S^billot, vol. m. La Faime el la Flare, Paris, 1906; pp. 280 flf.

2. Liu Po; Mo-ku chi ch'i tsai-p’d [Mushrooms and Their Cukivaiion].

K'o-hsUeh Ch'u-pan ShS (Scientific Publication Association]. Peking. 196.J; pp. 11. 88.

3. Ancient Symlwlism in Lilhiuinidn Folk Art. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society. Vol. 49. 1958.

189

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

seems to have been a beneficent deity, a chthonic spirit compact with
earth force and sexuality; the snake likewise. But Christianity changed
all that, and not for the better.

How strange it is that the most spectacular, the most potent, mush-
room lacks a name in the English language. A people priding ourselves
on our love of nature has not bestowed a name on this regal plant

Fig. 6. Wooden grave markers car\’ed in bird and toad’s leg motifs from the
19th centuiy cemeteries in Lithuania Minor. (After Marija Gimbutas: Andeiit
SyiHfcolism in Lithuanian Folk Art, p. 32, Mem. of Amcr. Folklore Sodecy,

Philadelphia, Vol. 49, 1958).

bedecking our woods in the fall of the year. {For 'fly-agaric of course
is not a name. I use it in this book as a term of convenience. It has
no circulation among the genuine country-folk of the English-speak-
ing world. A post-Linnaean invention, 'fly-agaric has led its exsan-
guinated existence mostly beuveen the pages of pallid mushroom
manuals.) On the other hand, the most important fungal word in
English, ‘toadstool’, has no specific meaning; though on the Continent,
in those regions where it retains a specific association, the link with

190

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

the fly-agaric is unmistakable. Our earliest citations for the word are
of course after the Christian fathers had introduced writing into
northern Europe, and already it had lost its moorings. 1 suggest that
the ‘toadstool’ was originally the fly-agaric in the Celtic world; that
the ‘toadstool’ in its shamanic role had aroused such awe and fear and
adoration that it came under a powerful tabu, perhaps like the Vogul
tabu where the shamans and their apprentices alone could eat of it’
and others did so only under pain of death; that people hesitated to
pronounce the very name of this mushroom, so that in time it became
nameless and the name it formerly carried hovered thereafter ambi-

Fic. 7. Tond motif on prehistoric potter)’. Left: Neolithic pot with incised to.id
form. Second half of 3rd millennium B. C. Danubian 1 culture in Czechoslovaki.1.
Right: Figure of toad on bottom of Early Iron Age pot from Central Germany.
(After Marija Gimbutas; Ancient Synilwlism in tiifinanian Folfe Art, p. 35, Mem.
of Amer. Folklore Society, Philadelphia, V'ol. 49. 1958).

guously over the whole fungal tribe so that all the mushroom world
fell under the same floating tabu. This tabu was a pagan injunction
belonging to the Celtic world. The shamanic use of the fly-agaric
disappeared in time, perhaps long before the Christian dispensation.
But in any case the fly-agaric could expect no quarter from the mis-
sionaries, for whom toad and toadstool were alike the Enemy. (We
remind the reader of St. Augustine’s censure of mushroom-eating by
the Manichjeans supported much later by the excoriations of St.
Francois de Sales and of Jeremy Taylor, p. 71-) Today we arc dealing
with a deep-seated emotional attitude born in a tabu long forgotten,

I. Vidt supra, pp. 152*153 ; also Kai Donner [28] p. 286. and Lehusalo [14] P- ^0.

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

a tabu on a Sacred Element, the fly-agaric, a tabu overlaid by and
mixed up with the venom of the Christian Church’s anathema.

The truly lethal mushrooms - AmaniM phalhides, A.verna, A.vi-
rosa ~ have played virtually no role in Eurasian history. They are of
importance only to the rare individual who eats one of them and dies
from it. and to his kin. (They have occasionally served the assassin’s
purpose.) In many of the languages of Europe the peasants have no
name for them: they pass them by and ignore them. But everyone
knows the notorious reputation of the fly-agaric and shudders at the
thought of eating it. Thus in our own day a sanction having its origin
in a purely religious tabu thousands of years old is better known and
more effective than the lethal properties of the deadly species.

In the spring and again in the summer of 1967 I visited Dr. Janos
Gulya, in Budapest, to consult with him in the field where he is the
master, the Finno-Ugrian languages, and especially the Ugrian cluster
-Magyar, Ostyak, and Vogul. Out of his knowledge of these, to us,
remote languages he drew to my attention a usage in Ostyak that
may have relevance for our inquiry into the fly-agaric. The word tul-
pavx' occurs in two Heroic Songs, in one as part of the hero’s name,
and in the second, repeatedly in the course of the narrative. In both
cases the word signifies the fly-agaric, ‘tuW meaning Tool’ and ‘foolish’ ;
pa})X means of course 'fly-agaric’. This serves to nail down the meaning
of expressions that have circulated in past centuries in many parts of
Europe, but whose specific sense has long been up in the air.

In Magyar there is a phrase, a conversational cliche, bolond gomba,
'fool-mushroom', circulating especially in rural areas, as when one
asks of a person behaving foolishly, ‘Have you eaten of the fool s
mushroom?’, or when one rejects a proposition by saying, Do you
think I have eaten a fool-mushroom, that I should do such a thing? Or

I. The citaiions arc in Osztjdk HcsineM [Ostyak Heroic Songs]. Reguly A. is Pipay J. hagyatika
[The Ugacy of Anton Reguiy and J. Pdpay]. i. koiet. [Vol. i.] Reguly Konyvtir i. [Reguly Library i.J
Edited by Mikl6s Zsirai, Budapest. 1944- The first citation is from the first heroic song. pp. 2-165. on
pp. 2-3. The second citation is from the second song. pp. 392. 398. 400. The first song was from
Obdorsk, now Salehard. The second was from the northern Sosva river basin.

192

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

again, ‘He is laughing as though he had eaten fools mushrooms,’ In
Hungary the ’wise-woman’, jauu nss^eny, is said to use this same
mushroom in love philtres, and the angry lover sends the philtre on
to the object of his passion. At our request considerable effort has
been made in Hungary to find out whether peasants in any region of
that country identify the i>o/onii geniKi with a particular species, but
with no success. This is why Dr. Gulya’s discovery of a linguistic link
with the Ob-Ugrian peoples is gratifying. The link bridges the cen-
turies and securely fixes a knowledge in former times of the properties
of the fly-agaric in the Pannonian Plain among the Hungarian people.

The fly-agaric’s peculiar virtue was widely known. In Yugoslavia
one still says, Najeo se Ijidi/i gijiv.i, 'He has eaten enough of the fool-
mushroom'. In Vienna one may hear, Er liiit verriicfcfe Sdnwimtiierl
gegesseti, ‘He has eaten the mad mushrooms.’ and all Germans reco-
gnize the meaning of Nnrreiisc/nviinim. ‘fool-mushroom’. John Par-
kinson in his T/ieiilricinn Boltimciiin {1640) speaks of the ‘foolish mush-
room’. but he is leaning on his Continental sources. The 17th century
Polish poet Waclaw Potocki warns his readers in The Unweeded Garden
against a kind of mushroom called seiner, lest it render the reader fool-
ish (s^iilec). ‘as from opium’. He was clearly passing on hearsay, since
no mushroom could be confused with opium. A Slovak informant
from near the Tatra Mountains tells us that rejected mushrooms
are variously called by his people ^abaci /nil>y, toad-mushrooms,
haddei huby and /indiinfce /iiiIj}', both meaning viper-mushrooms and
/tiiene /nil)y, mad-mushrooms. The toad and serpent, prehistoric deities
chased away by Christianity, are thus associated with the inebriating
mushrooms. To the east of Slovakia, in the Ukraine, the natives today
call any wild mushroom that they reject :^habjachyj hryb - the toad-
like mushroom.

The Hungarians invaded Europe and settled in the Pannonian plain
late in history, at the end of the 9th century. Their ‘mad mushroom ,
bolond gomba, establishes a link with the fly-agaric of the Ob-Ugrians,
but not with European pre-history. Whether the verbal traces of the
‘mad-mushroom’ that we have found are all derived from Ugrian
sources, via the Magyar peoples, we cannot say. It seems probable

193

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

that a knowledge of the properties of this extraordinary fungus
survived independently. How otherwise are we to explain the name
of the fly-agaric in Catalan - oriol foil, the ‘mad-oriole’, the ‘oriole’
being AhkihiM casarea and the fly-agaric thus being the ‘fool’s A.
ctxsarea-, or the mujolofolo around Toulouse, or the coucourlo fouolo in
the Aveyron, or the ovolo matto in the Trentino, all meaning ‘mad
mushroom’? In the dialect of Fribourg, Switzerland, the fly-agaric is
the devil s hat , tsapi de didblhou. Eugene Rolland reports bo as a
designation for any gilled fungus in the Haute Saone and botet in
the Loire, both presumably meaning originally the Satanic mush-
room. by way of bot, ‘toad’ and Satan in Old French. In the Aude
two words designate the fly-agaric, rtujoulo folho, the ‘mad-mush*
room’, and fHO-monscos, the ‘fly-killer’; they are synonyms.

T his discussion of the fungal vocabulary of Europe has finally brought
us to the second of the two important mushroomic words of the
European languages - Fliegenpil^ (or Fliegenschwamm in the older
tongue), the ‘fly mushroom’ of the Germans and corresponding words
in all the other Germanic languages, except English in which I find
no trace of the ‘fly’ figure. The word in the Germanic languages is
simply ‘fly-mushroom’. In Russian and French the mushroom is
popularly called the ‘fly-killer’. In Russian mnkhomor is the only name
for this conspicuous and decorative mushroom. In French, as we
have seen, tue-mouche competes with the more important fausse oronge.
the ‘false Caesar’s amanita’, and also with the crapaudin of the
provinces.

In Mushrooms Russia History we gave what for our time was a new
explanation of the German ‘fly-mushroom’: the fly, in our opinion,
was certainly the fly of madness, of divine possession. The association
of madness with insect activity, and particularly with the fly, sensii
lato, is exceedingly old and can be documented throughout Eurasia.
In the course of our Siberian readings we found Jochelson [21, p. 267]
reporting in the Chukotka that if the eater of the fly-agaric vomits,
the people believe that the spirits of the demonic mushroom can be

194

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

found in the vomit as ‘worms', which then quickly vanish into the
earth. He was speaking of the Koryak. Bogoraz in turn says ot the
Chukchi [22. p. 2771 that the shamans think psychic disturbances are
caused by insects, and they use insects in their treatment of mental
disorders. The shaman catches an insect trom off his drum, swallows
it. spits it up. and applies it to the head of the victim. He then sucks
the sick man’s head. Sometimes the insect is imaginary, sometimes
real. This widespread notion that insects cause madness was based,
as 1 will venture to suggest, on a natural phenomenon: the herds-
men saw their reindeer and sheep driven into a trenzy when insects
lodged in their nostrils and procreated there, and the animals did not
recover until the new generation emerged from the nose.

Bugs, flies, moths, all kinds of larva: - in short, the insect world -
constituted for our ancestors until recent times an order of nature
instinct with supernatural powers, mostly malevolent and always
awesome. Their strange shapes and stranger behaviour, their incredi-
ble numbers and countless kinds, perhaps most of all their undeniable

faculty of metamorphosis, may be at the root ot this role that they
played in the thinking of untutored mankind. The fly was divinely
possessed and so was the Fhegenpil^. Already in the Old Testament
the neighbors of the Israelites worshipped Beelzebub, whose name
meant the Lord of Flies. In the Greek New Testament, where that
heathen god does not appear, the same name was used as a syno-
nym for the Prince of Demons. The Biblical term crops out in mod-
ern literature, as in line 1334 of Goethe’s Faust: WVun uum e«c/i
Fiiegeugott, Verderber, Liigner heijit . . . 'When one calls you Fly-god.

Destroyer. Liar . . .’ In Nordic mytholog)' the god Loki assumes the
appearance of a ‘fly’ to enter the tightly closed apartment of the
sleeping goddess Freya. He pricks her. and when she starts, deftly
detaches her necklace and steals it. Whatever that ‘fly’ was. no one
thought of it as a housefly, for the housefly does not bite.

In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance it was the convention to
represent demons in the shape of flies. Hieronymus Bosch, the greatest
of Europe’s painters of the demonic world, presents us with a superb
illustration of flies in their demonic role. We find it in the left hand

195

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

panel of the Hay Wain, where the momentous events that took place
in the Garden of Eden leading up to Man s First Fall are portrayed
with moving beauty. We reproduce the upper portion of that panel
in Plate xxn. wherein the observer sees that the angels expelled and
tumbling down from Heaven assume the form of 'flies’ - a diverse lot
of winged demons, Beelzebub’s host. In recent times the poet echoes
this theme skeptically when, a few years ago, he uttered in The Times
Literary Supplement the following sprightly lines:

Has Freud not hit the Devil on the snout?

Is not Beelzebub destroyed by flit?

Are we important? Do we really sprout
Immortal souls that priests may manumit?

H. S. Mackintosh, issue of Oct. 2, 19J3.

Sometimes accidents of sound led to confusions in names. In English
flea’ and 'fly’ are words of different origins, but the phonetic simi-
larity caused them sometimes to be used one for the other. When in
Henry V Falstaff lay dying, he saw a ‘flea’ stick upon the toper Bar-
dolph’s flaming nose, whereupon he said it was a ‘blacke Soule burn-
ing in Hell’. What he saw was of course a fly, and the black soul in
hell was, according to the beliefs of that day, its incorporeal counter-
part, the Demon domiciled in every fly. Though in English the fly is
not linked with the fly-agaric, the supernatural associations of the
word survive. The Oxford Dictionary reports that 'fly' has always
been a designation for a 'familiar spirit’, and one stiU hears occasion-
ally 'fly’ as an adjective meaning nimble, dextrous, sharp, with the
suggestion of an uncanny faculty in those directions.

One of the most interesting examples of the Satanic fly in European
literature is to be found in that classic of the Danish stage, Ludvig Hol-
berg’s Jeppe of the Hill, first produced in 1722. Two physicians are con-
versing. One of them speaks of his Lordship, who has had a strange, ugly
dream.which so excited him that he imagines himself a peasant. Where-
upon the other physician recalls a remarkable case ten years back: ... a
man who thought his head was full of flies. He could not rid himself
of the delusion, until a most clever doctor cured him in the following

196

Pi-Mt- XXII • Hicronvimis Bosch; the J lav-w.iin.

# 4

Upper part of left panel of triptych.
(Coiiricsv .Mii.vckhi, Wiidriih

««•••••••••••

T ^

»«••»«••»«••» ss ;<:

•mmm

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

manner. He covered his patient’s whole head with a plaster in which
he had embedded masses of dead flies. [Query; were they the Spanish
flies of the Pharmacopoeia?] After a while he removed the plaster and
showed the flies to the patient, who naturally believed that they had
been drawn from his own head and therefore concluded that he was
cured.’ Here is a beautiful instance of the way a dramatist (or physi-
cian) puts to use an outworn belief that lingers on in the penumbra ot
man’s consciousness: an outworn belief, but one that has survived
until only yesterday, as we have just seen, in the Chukchi country.

In the Middle Ages delirium, drunkenness, and insanity were at-
tributed to insects that were loose inside the head of the victim. This
belief, strange for the modern mind, survives in many familiar lo-
cutions. A man has a bee in his bonnet, a fly (or bug) in his ear. or
demonic bats (= 'bots’) in his belfry. The Norwegians get flies into
their heads or put flies into others’ heads. To ‘put a bee on someone’
means to fix him willy nilly for a given purpose: in this locution the
demonic intent is scarcely fossilized. It used to be said in French, when
a man was becoming angry, that la mouche lui monte d la tete, a fly
is climbing up into his head. Down to recent times «n’uler les moiiches
was a phrase for saying that someone had summoned up his courage,
and the flies thus swallowed were of course demonic. Rabelais at the
very end of Book iv makes the coward Panurge protest that, far from
being afraid, he is braver than if he had eaten all the flies cooked in
the pastries of Paris betwixt St. John’s Day and All Saints’. There is a
colloquial expression that circulates around Lyons and perhaps else-
where: Ne prends pas la mouche: don’t catch a fly, don’t get excited.
Of a man who is unbalanced one says, II a I'araignee dans le plafond,
he has a spider in his ceiling, i.e., in his upper story. The Czechs use
an identical phrase: mifi nionc/nt (or pavouka) na mo^ku, to have a
fly (or spider) on the brain. The Italian is apt to say, Gli e saltata la
mosca al naso, the fly jumped to his nose, that is to say, he became
upset. When the Dutch say, Hy ^iet ^e vliegen, he sees them flying,
he has bats in the belfry, does not the turn of phrase refer to the
flies’ that he sees? In Russian they say of a man who is tipsy: o» c
mufe/ioj, so-and-so is ‘with fly'. There is a gesture peculiar to the

197

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

Russians that we feel sure stems from this association of psychic pos-
session with flying insects. The Russian when he suggests having an
alcoholic drink is like as not to perform a fillip against his neck below
the ear: this is so habitual that it is become a Pavlov reflex. Does not
that familiar fillip invoke the demonic ‘fly’ entering the mind? Ac-
cording to the Icelandic-English lexicon of Cleasby-Vigfusson, under
fluga, in Icelandic belief sorcerers would bewitch flies and send them
to kill their enemies. This explains the modern Icelandic phrases, ‘to
swallow the fly’ or ‘to carry the fly’, meaning 'to be the tool of another
man in a wicked business’. In Basque folklore, sorcerers and other
malevolent beings would work their will through demons that as-
sumed the shape of flies, and sorcerers would carry the demonic
creatures in a sheath such as anglers use for their flies today.

Everyone who knows the first thing about wild mushrooms knows
why the fly-agaric is so called: it kills the flies that feed on it and until
modern times it was used as a household insecticide on the Continent.
This is what all the books say. What is more, there is a large part of
Europe where the untutored rustics, the people who read no books,
also accept the story as part of their legacy of folk knowledge. It
belongs to that curious fund of ‘facts’ that people keep repeating to
each other and believing, without verification or analysis, like the
saying that all Russians are good linguists. The area of Europe where
our folk belief prevails is extensive but not all-inclusive. It embraces
the Slavic world, the Germanic world except the British Isles, the
Vosges, where Franco-German bilingualism prevails, and one or two
enclaves elsewhere in France. The ancient authors, though they have
much to say about the fungi, never refer to a fly-killer, and in modern
Italy among the country folk we believe the association with the fly is
unknown, but our inquiry has not been exhaustive. It is unknown
among the Basques, and apparently to all the rural population of the
Iberian peninsula. If we judge by Eugene RoUand’s evidence in his
Flore Populaire, in France the name tue-mouche, ‘kill-fly’, is indigenous
only in Alsace and the Aude. though thanks to the mushroom man-

198

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

iials it is now familiar to a sprinkling of educated Frenchmen else-
where. (Rolland reports that at Val-d’Ajol in the Vosges the natives
hang the fly-agaric from the ceiling, where, he says, it draws flies to
their death.) By contrast the German F/iegeiipil^ or ‘fly-fungus has
its variants in all the German dialects, and also in Dutch and the
Germanic languages of Scandinavia, but not in English.

Albertus Magnus, the Universal Doctor of the Church, supplies us
with our earliest citations' attributing insecticidal properties to the

fly-agaric: his writings date from the 13th century. Other learned
clerks follow suit down the centuries. They differ in details discon-
certingly. The distinguished Carolus Clusius, for example, whom
some consider the father of mycology, describes the fly-killing fungi
as a genus having five or six species, of which one is the fly-agaric.*
Clusius was a widely travelled man and he places the use of the fly-
agaric for fly-killing only in Frankfort-on-the-Main. The great Lin-
naeus in Flora Svecica repeated the statement about killing flies, but
instead of Frankfort he said it was a custom in Smolandia. a Swedish
province where he had spent his childhood. This is not the only
reference to the insecticidal agaric in Linnaeus. In his famous Sfeanske
Resa ('Journey through Scania’) published in 1751. on page 430. he
tells how a certain Swede in Upsala got rid of bedbugs from two of his
rooms by the use of Amamta miiscaria. He describes the remedy and
then concludes with what we consider a most significant statement:

One takes in the autumn fresh specimens of the fly amanita, pounds
them with a pestle quite small in a jar, lets them stand well closed
until they become slimy or like gruel. Then one takes a feather or
brush and smears all the cracks and comers where they (the bedbugs)
keep themselves, and this procedure is repeated several limes at
monthly intervals. The room stinks for two or three days, but then
the smell disappears. These nasty creatures die of it as if the plague
had come amidst them, and whole bug-families perish as if from the
Black Death. Although this remedy is simple, it is surer than
anything else hitherto invented, and with its aid several houses in
Upsala have now become free of bugs.

1. Dc Ve^eiabilibus, Book u, Chap. 6:87; Book vi, Chap. 7:345.

2. Rdriorum Piantarum Historia, 1601, Genus xn of ihc Pernicious Mushrooms.

199

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

In a note on the next page Linn^us adds that he has learned of this
method for the first time from a Mr. Bern. Cashier of Interests in
Upsala. The text is in Swedish.

For us the striking thing about this description is that it is a report
on a no\elty. Certain families of Upsala were putting the popular
reputation of the fly-agaric to a test, and their first impression was
enthusiastic. Why had they not been using it for centuries? What were
their final conclusions, say five years later? The answers to these
questions are not vouchsafed to us. Was not Europe in these last
centuries finally reaching a standard of living that made people more
impatient with insect pests, and as the older and original meaning of
Fliegeupill was being forgotten, were they not now misinterpreting
the name, and experimenting here and there to try out the mush-
room’s insecticidal virtues, only to discover that they were of no
practical value?

After Linnaeus the references to the fly killing potency of the fly-
agaric in mushroomic writings are innumerable. All the mycologists
believe in it - with one dissenting voice. None puts it to a test - with
one exception. The French mycologist Jean Baptiste Bulliard. in his
Histoire des Plantes Veneneiises et Suspectes de la France, which he finished
in 1779. dares to strike a sceptical note. Speaking of the fly-agaric,
he says:

I have never noticed that it kills flies, as several authors assert. I have
had specimens, raw and cooked, for long periods in my apartment.

Flies light on them, and seem even to eat them, without bad effects.

But I intend to repeat this experiment with certain new precautions.

We know not the results of the promised experiments, but we know
that when Bulliard died in 1793, he held the view that a new scientific
name should be bestowed on Amanita miiscaria, and he suggested
‘Agaricus pseudo-aurantiaais’ , presumably because he considered the
old name false. The mycoiogical world has not deferred to his wishes,
nor until the last few years even tested his premises. In the last
fifteen years steps have been taken to remedy this. As long ago as
1953, on our suggestion, the mycologist F. E. Eckblad of the Botanical

200

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

Museum of Oslo, ^^orking under Professor Rolf Nordh.igen, per-
formed experiments leading him to the tentative conclusion that
there was no evidence of insecticidal virtue in the fly-agaric. More
recently Professor Roger Heim has supervised experiments by some of
his assistants seeking the answer to the problems that we have raised,
and work has been in progress also in Switzerland, Japan, and Eng-
land. It seems that the complex chemical make-up of the fly-agaric
varies, perhaps materially so far as the fly-killing and the inebriating
constituents are concerned, according to place and season of growth.

Albertus Magnus was relying on hearsay, and so indeed was Lin-
iiieus when he quoted a Mr. Bern about bedbugs. Most writers have
placed the fly-killing at a distance from themselves in time or place.
Clusius in Frankfort. Linna.nis in Smolandia. John Ramsbottom in
Poland. Bohemia, and Rumania. Mr. Ramsbottom* also says that the
fly-agaric was ‘formerly’ used in England and Sweden for killing
bedbugs, as though it had been an habitual practice in those places,
thus justifying the occasional use of the name 'bug agaric . But Lin-
naeus was reporting a novelty in Sweden, and bug agaric in English
cannot be old. since Linnecus by his great authority imposed the name

1. The EckbUd resulcs arc in a Icitcr ihat he wroic me dated Sepc. 8, 1953. wc summarued

in Muiljwmi & History, p.iiy

More recently, the Revue de Slycologte, Roger Heim editor, has carried the following articles under
the general heading of *L*n Probleme d iclatrctr: cclui de la Tue*mouche*:

Tome XXX (196$), Fasc, i-a, July 15. 1965*

L'Amanice tue-mouche, bicn ou mal nommec? by Oabrielle Bazanie, pp. ti6-iai.

Etude dc Taction de TAmuMiru muscuria sur les mouches, by Monique Loequin, pp. 122*1 23-

Tome XXX (1965), Fasc. a, 1966:

L'Amanite tue*mouchc nord-am^ricaine n esc pas la Muscdrid. by Roger Heim, pp. 294*298. This
is a mise an point of the various forms of A. muscaria that have been reported in the journals.

Tome XXXI, Fasc. 3, Nov, 30, 1966:

Continuation of Gabrielle Bazante's paper, pp. 261*268.

Continuation of Monique Locquin*Linard*s paper, pp. 269*276.

Tome xxxn (1967). Fasc. 5. July 1968:

Continuation of Monique Loequin-Linard $ paper, pp. 428-437.

For the papers of the EugstcrAVascr team in Zurich, the Bowden team in England, and the Takemo*
to team in Japan, vide bibliographies that accompany the papers by Conrad H. Eugstcr and Peter

G. Waser published in Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychcactive Drugs, a volume edited by Daniel

H. Efron, Bo Holmsiedc, and Nathan $. Kline. 1967. Public Health Senlce Publication No. 1645;
being the 'Proceedings of a Symposium held in San PrandKO. Calif., January 28*30, 1967,*

2. Vide his Poisonous Fungi. Penguin Books Ltd., 1945. p. 21.

201

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

'agaric’ on the gilled fungi and ‘bug’ for 'bedbug is a modernism in
the English language. Only Bulliard put the fly-agaric to the test, and
his findings were negative. But in support of Bulliard’s scepticism we
can add a story told to us by a Russian friend. Ekaterina Apollinarievna
Bouteneff. Her nurse in childhood was an unlettered peasant woman
from the region of Riazan. Our friend remembers having seen this
good woman time and again put out a saucer with a crushed cap of the
fly-agaric in it, a lump of sugar on top of the fungal mess. This was
going to kill the flies, she would always say. But our friend always
observed that the flies did not die. When she would ask her nurse why
they did not die, the reply was always the same: ‘They are sure to
die later.’

In the past ten years much work has been done on the chemistry
and pharmacology of the fly-agaric by Drs. Conrad H. Eugster and
Peter G. Waser of the University of Zurich. Switzerland, and by Dr.
T. Takemoto and his colleagues at Sendai University in Japan. An
acid has been isolated from Amanita muscaria which the Japanese
named ‘ibotenic’, and it possesses slight insecticidal properties. Under
favorable conditions flies, imbibing the juice of the freshly cut speci-
mens, fall into a stupor. In the stupor they are apt to succumb to their
enemies, but if not, they recover after some hours or even days.

Twenty-five years ago we had gathered, Valentina Pavlovna and I,
much of the information that has been offered to the reader in this
chapter. ‘Toadstool’ and Fliegenpil^ were folk-words coming down to
us from our remotest ancestors, for whom they were freighted with
supernatural meaning. To amplify our information concerning them
we set out to explore the primitive cultures of Siberia, with the results
that now lie before the reader. This in turn led me to work up and
here present an interpretation of certain aspects of the RgVeda, and
of the Soma that lies at the core of the RgVeda. Out of the depths of
Asia we gain the vast perspective of an ancient cult, now finally
disappearing, and what it must have meant for man’s imagination
and emotional life in the pre-literate phases of his past. How strange

202

EUROPE AND THE FLY-AGARIC

and stirring that the Soma of the Aryans should be linked to the
‘toadstool' of our day in subtle ways that no one has suspected

until now!

The primordial inebriant of northern Eurasia was the fly-agaric.
This was the divine inebriant that inspired the astonishing lyrics of
Mandala IX of the RgVeda. and the Heroic Hymns of the Vogul in our
own time. Through a different set of circumstances the same inebriant
was responsible for laying a blight on the mushroom world through-
out the English-speaking world. I suppose that the ‘toad’ figure of
the ‘toadstool’ was peculiarly the property of the Celts, and the tabu
must have been enforced by singularly eflcctive religious sanctions.
The high reverence that must have accompanied the tabu changed to
intense revulsion when the divine inebriant became under the
Christian dispensation demonic possession. These are only speculative
guesses, of course, but the strength of the tabu even today is im-
pressive. In the English-speaking world there are victims of allergy
who are peculiarly sensitive to mushrooms. It is even said that
among mycologists there are those who, poor souls, must refrain
from eating the objects of their study, for fear of reactions. My wife,
who was a physician specializing in allergies and with a large Russian
practice, had never heard of a Slav who complained of sensitivity
to mushrooms. There have been many distinguished mycologists in
the English-speaking world, but would not incomparably more talent
have flowed into this field if ‘toadstools’ had not been of its theme?

The attitude of the Germanic world has been somewhat different
from the English. Whether Albertus Magnus believed the story of the
fly-killing mushroom we cannot say. As time has gone on and the
world has become increasingly fly-conscious it has become easier to
believe that the fly-agaric is so named because it kills flies. Perhaps this
alternative explanation served the Church’s purpose, diverting at-
tention from the awesome truth. Certainly in recent generations,
when with increasing education the fly has come to be considered a
pest, this watered-down meaning of the name has completely won
the day for mothers, governesses, nursery maids (now called baby-
sitters), and children.

203

PART THREE • CHAPTER III

There is a further distinction to be drawn between the Fliegenpilz
and the ‘toadstool’. No one eats the fly-agaric in Germany, of course,
but the attitude toward it is not unfriendly. The red mushroom with
white spots appears frequently on greeting cards to convey good
wishes and a seasonal message of happy augury, precisely as the ling
chih is used in China and throughout the Chinese orbit.

A noteworthy thing: this attribute of happy augury belonging to
the Fliegenpil^ is regarded by chimney-sweeps as peculiarly theirs. The
chimney-sweep pursues an ancient craft that still lingers on in Central
Europe. One occasionally sees its devotees hurrying through the
streets of the ancient cities, dressed in their formal black garb, the
leader wearing his top-hat, with ladders and brushes, the utensils of
their trade. The fire of the hearth is their traditional preoccupation.
Has the chimney-sweep made the fly-agaric his own for the same
reason that the Vedic poet identified Soma with Agni?

EPILOGUH

THE TREE OF LIFE AND THE MARVELOUS HERB

««•••••••••••

T ^

»«••»«••»«••» ss ;<:

•mmm

EPILOGUE

THE TREE OF LIFE AND THE MARVELOUS HERB

In Pdrt Three and the Siberian Exhibits I have laid before the reader
evidence for the part played by the fly-agaric as a divine incbriant in
the proto- and pre-history of Eurasia. A recapitulation of this evidence
will bring out aspects that the more detailed account tended to obscure
and will chart the course for further inquiries.

Our surprising discovery in Siberia is linguistic. Just as we of Indo-
European stock say today that so-and-so is drunk . a word derived
from the fermented beverage that we ‘drink’, and just as we say of
the Siberian shaman that he gets ‘drunk’ on fly-agaric without giving
thought to the semantic contradiction, so the corresponding word in
the Ob-Ugrian and one (at least) of the Samoyed languages can be
translated as ‘bemushroomed’. and where that word survives it is
used for alcoholic inebriation with no awareness of philological
anomaly. Moreover we can assert that that word goes back far into
the past. The Finno-Ugrian languages and the Samoyed group to-
gether make up the Uralic family. There is a characteristic consonant
shift between Samoyed and the other languages of the family; an f
in Samoyed turns up as 'p‘ in the others. As the reader wfll perceive
when he reads [34]. the Ob-Ugrian root patjx appears as in

Tavgi, a north Samoyed language, both of them connoting ine-
briation. (This happens to be precisely the same shift that occurs
betxveen the Latin and Germanic families, -e.g.. the p in pater
and the ‘f’ in ‘father’.) The cluster of words that interests us shows
this characteristic shift, and therefore it was not borrowed at some
later time but must go back to common Uralic. According to the
weight of scholarly opinion, Uralic ceased to be spoken ca. 6000 B. C.,
or according to some authorities as recently as 4000 B. C. At that re-
mote period there was not yet writing in the world: the Sumerians
seem to have been the first to devise a method for making speech
visible, and this they did shortly before 3000 B. C,

207

EPILOGUE

The use of the fly-agaric as an inebriant therefore dates back to the
period when common Uralic was last spoken, but this is the minimum
age. There is no reason to suppose that the peculiar virtue of this
miraculous herb went for long undiscovered after it became common
in the birch and pine forests as these spread over the Siberian plains in
pursuit of the retreating ice cap of the last glacial age, ca. 10,000 B. C.
After all. the first inhabitants probing the northlands were food
gatherers, and how could they fail to see this spectacular plant with its
solar disk growing around the base of the noble birch? And given
their mental equipment and physical appetites, how could they fail to
discover and then to take advantage of its inebriating qualities? None
of our writers, not even the able anthropologists Bogoraz and Jo-
chelson (who as Russians were surely mycophiles), seem to have
discerned the role that it must have played in the past of the north-
Eurasian peoples. Perhaps the Soviet authorities, now that they are
under less pressure from urgent problems, will be disposed to allow
able, sympathetic observers to go among the tribesmen and learn
what they still know about their former practices with the fly-agaric,
the normal inebriant over that vast expanse of the earth’s surface for
thousands of years.

We must be thankful for the anthropological testimony that we
possess but we must not exaggerate its importance. For a shamanic
practice that has lasted six, or eight, or ten millennia our soundings
reach back only three centuries, ripples on time’s surface. Some of the
observers were supercilious and none of them saw the implications of
their obsen'ations. None of them seems to have been prepared in
botany and none probed the questions that are compelling for us.
The circumstances that brought them on the scene were at the same
time bringing about the end of the beliefs and performances for which
they were to be the sole witnesses. They were observing the fly-agaric
cult only in its dying phase, when the area of its diffusion was being
lopped away, when in some places the integrity of belief in it had been
undermined, and w'hen the tribes themselves were mostly in a pitiful
state of physical and psychological disarray. There is ample evidence
that the ethnic movements, often gradual and more or less peaceful.

208

TREE OF LIFE AND MARVELOUS HERB

in the inhospitable tundra and taiga of Siberia have been continuous,
and we are far from unraveling them. In recent centuries the peoples
practicing the Hy-agaric cult have been living in areas to the north of
where they were in their heyday, some of them on or close to the
Arctic Ocean. They have been displaced from their former homes by
Altaic tribes who do not, apparently, take the fly-aganc’ but who
have absorbed into their shamanic practices the corpus of beliefs that
go w ith the tly-agaric. beliefs that seem to accompany the ecology ot
the forest belt, especially the reverence for the birch. For the histo-
rian of human cultures it is a matter of regret that the impact ot the
modern world is inevitably brutal, bulldozer-like, in its disregard
and contempt for the beliefs and ways of life of primitive peoples
whom our industrial civilization wrenches trom their traditions and
tries, usually without success, to bring into step with our contem-
porary ideas. This holds true for the communist as well as the ca-
pitalist world: witness the authors that wc quote in [42].

In northern Europe there is circumstantial evidence that in former
times, long before the advent of literacy, the fly-agaric held sway
over our own ancestors. This evidence, suggestive but falling short ol
proof, was enough to launch us on our inquiry, and the collateral
confirmation that we found in Siberia buttresses our initial supposition
as to our own ancestors. The picture that begins to emerge of a united
field in Eurasia where the fly-agaric evoked religious adoration is
I mightily reenforced by my discovery that the Aryans, hailing from
northern Eurasia and settling in the second millennium before Christ
on the Iranian plateau and in the Indus Valley, brought down with
them as one of their gods the fly-agaric, incorporating it into their
elaborate religion of basic Indo-European pattern. The fly-agaric ap-
pears to have given those who ate it (or drank its juice) a feeling of
elation, of ecstasy, so powerful that they felt they were sharing, for

I, For this conclusion wc rely chiefly on negaiive evidence. Anthropologists like S. M. Shirokogorov,
who spedalUed in ihc Tungus and Yakut cultures, make no mention of the fly*agaric. Ivan A. Lo-
patin. also with extensive personal experience, has assured me in a personal cominumcation that
the Tungus shamans know nothing of the practice. also Brekhman and Sem [4a] p. 334.

209

EPILOGUE

the nonce, the life of the immortals. As we shall see, we think that the
renown of this divine inebriant spread far beyond northern Eurasia
and the Aryan world. We have already suggested that under the
First Emperor of China, Shih-huang, toward the end of the third
century before Christ, rumours about the mar\'elous herb erupted in
the Imperial Court and led to the conception of the ling chih, the
‘Divine Mushroom of Immortality’, which the Taoists made peculiarly
their own and which survives to this day throughout the orbit of
Chinese culture.

There is I think an inference that we may draw: a plant with pro-
perties that could be plausibly named the Herb of Immortality re-
sponded to one of man’s deepest desires in the early stages of his
intellectual development. The superb fly-agaric gave him a glimpse of
horizons beyond any that he knew in his harsh struggle for survival,
of planes of existence far removed and above his daily round of
besetting cares. It contributed to the shaping of his mythological
world and his religious life.

Now that the hallucinogens are again becoming familiar to us all,
perhaps vicariously we are vouchsafed a glimpse into the subjective
life of peoples known to us heretofore only by the mute artifacts
uncovered by the archaeologists. To weigh the effects of those hallu-
cinogens is a formidable task, today rendered doubly difficult (perhaps
even impossible) by the emotions they inspire in our own community,
not least among the students of religion. Some of these seem loath
to admit even the possibility that the hallucinogens encouraged the
birth of religion, and may have led to the genesis of the Holy Mys-
teries. For them the hallucinogens are the abomination of abomi-
nations. Moreover, the fixation of our Western world on alcohol,
often a stultifying intoxicant and seldom an invigorating one, closes
our minds to other inebriants, older perhaps for the race than our
fermented drinks and in their effects utterly different.

In the face of the Siberian testimony and the Vedic hymns, I am at
a loss to explain what I write down as the partial failure of my own
experiments with the fly-agaric. True, these experiments have con-
firmed that its reputation as a lethal mushroom is only a super-

210

TREE OF LIFE AND MARVELOUS HERB

stition, a tabu handed down to us from our remote forebears. (I use
‘tabu’ not as a figure of speech but in its strictest anthropological
sense.) But why did we not feel the elation that the writers and poets
describe, comparable with what my companions and I experienced
after eating the hallucinogenic mushrooms of Mexico? Is there a
difference between the fly-agaric of continental Asia and the Japanese
and European specimens? This is possible; we must remember that
von Langsdorf [lo, p. 240I thought the Siberian fly-agaric displayed a
•navel’ lacking in the European ones, in short, to use the mycologists’
word, that it was Timbonate’. But it seems unlikely. There was the
divergent experience that Rokuya Imazeki once enjoyed, on October
1, 1965. in Sugadaira. (Vide p. 75) All the fly-agarics that we have
eaten were gathered in October. We find evidence' that at the end
of the season their potency falls off. We must either greatly increase
the dose or try specimens gathered in summer. The affirmative testi-
mony about the fly-agaric in Siberia is compelling, not to speak of
the astonishing lyrics addressed to Soma in the RgVeda.

In her recent little book* Miss Barnard has driven home brilliantly
the need to seek the genesis of myths in natural phenomena. Let us
see how this fits the case of the Tree of Life and the Wondrous Herb of
Immortality.

In the Siberian and Altaic cultures, wherever the birch grows it
plays an exalted role, sometimes also the pine, more rarely the fir.
The tall Siberian birch with its delicate dancing foliage and its dazzling
white bark is a thing of ethereal beauty, and this alone is enough to
give it a favored place in the affections of the Russians. But beyond the
Urals it enlisted more than the affections of the tribesmen: it is the
nodal point for their shamanism, for their beliefs about the super-
natural. All or almost all of the serious writers about these cultures
speak of the conspicuous place of the birch in their practices and

1. Vide Brekhman and Sem [42] p. 33$; also [10] p. 247. Dr. Conrad Eugster informs me ihac
chemical analysis shows more ibotenic acid in the (ly-agarics gathered in mid-summer.

2. Mary Barnard: The xVIythmokm, Ohio University Press, 1966.

2II

EPILOGUE

thoughts.’ Yet not one of them links that special place with the fly-
agaric. Not one of them perceives why the birch is the Tree of Life.

The fly-agaric lives in mycorrhizal intimacy with the birch, espe-
cially the birch: sometimes with the pine, occasionally with the fir.
Moreover, while Fames fomentarius grows on several kinds of trees, it
is popularly associated with the birch because the birch is the most
common of its hosts. FoHies/t)»ie»tflrins is the shelf fungus, often reach-
ing huge size, that has always supplied the north Eurasian tribesmen
with punk or touchwood, the primary tinder that catches the spark
from the fire-drill and bursts into flames. This also has a mystic role
to play: among many primitive peoples the procreation of fire is
analogous to the sexual act. In French ‘punk’ is amadou, a word that
goes back to Latin amare, and in English a ‘punk’ until only a few
centuries ago was the harlot who sparked her lover into flame. The
parallel ‘spunk’ has to this day the scabrous meaning of ‘semen’, and
‘spark’, a different grade of the same word, carries various erotic
meanings. We shall see that in Siberia the same associations hold good.
In the northern latitudes it was only a ready fire that made life livable
and punk (cognate as I have suggested with Ob-Ugrian pavx. povx;
with Chukchi pov) seems to have captured men’s emotions. The birch,
parent to both fly-agaric and punk, naturally held pride of place as
the Tree of Life, providing in punk the key to fire for the body* and
in the fly-agaric fire for the soul.

What must have been conspicuous facts of nature for the Siberian
food-gatherers arc almost completely ignored by the Europeans who
have visited them. This is not surprising. Europe’s intellectuals are
largely recruited from the urban culture and are or soon become
strangers to the countryside. Of all the writers about the fly-agaric in

I. Here are three $econdar>- works chat wiU introduce the reader to the vast bibliography of primary
sources about the place held by the birch among the Siberian peoples:

a. The AlytWogyo/all Races. John Amoit MacCulloch. Editor: Vol. iv. fmno-Ugriar..S.{.enan.by Uno

Holmberg. Chap. v. 'The Tree of Life’. Archarological Institute of Amenca. Boston. 1927.

b. Jean-Paul Roux: Faiine et Flore Saa-ies dans les SxiMs Alulques. Adrien-Maisonneuve. ans.

Vide pp. 52-62 81. 89. 186. 359-36t.

e. Niircea Eliade: Shamanism: Archaic Techniques o/Ecstosy. BoUingen Scn«

New York. .,<.4; pp. X.V, 7e, 744-446. 40,- Tr.nsU.ed from .he Freneh. ie

U, Techmioer ArMq„tJ d, lExmt. Payot. Pad,. . 9 !.: PP.9. 78. 3 _

a. VM, l4l. .he Editor', no.e on efc-sro, a Ro»ian word for pnnk'.p.aSi aUo Jochebon [a.], p. 76,.

212

TREE OF LIFE AND MARVELOUS HERB

Siberia that tve assemble in the Exhibits, only three tnention its con-
nection with the birch. \on Maydell in .803 wrote ot the fly-aganc
that 'it is said to occur only among birch trees', and almost a century
earlier, in 1809. von Langsdorf observed that 'isolated
grow in Kamchatka, in birch forests and on dry plains . (Probably the
■dry plains’ of von Langsdorf were the habitat ot the dwarf birch ot
the Arctic regions, Betiihi lutihi; for the tly-aganc will grow with any
species of birch.) But even von Maydell did not perceive the impli-
cations of the accurate observation that he reported as having been
made to him by others. \'on Dittmar also associated the tly-aganc
with birch forests but vaguely." Even the Russians and Poles tailed
to point out the connection between the fly-agaric^ and the place of
the birch in Siberian folklore. Since 1885 mycologists have recog-
nized the mvcorrhizal relationships between certain species ot mush-
rooms and certain species ot trees, but this important advance in
their science did nothing to broaden and deepen the knowledge
of anthropologists because mycologists are prone to keep to them-
selves, and thev often look down their noses on 'folklore’ about
mushrooms as a childish and irrelevant diversion from the grave
questions of taxonomy and scientific nomenclature that preoccupy
them: and most anthropologists, strangely, seldom study botany and
never mycolog)’. I say ‘strangely’ because plants fill a large part of the
universe of the peoples we commonly call primitive.’

The birch is preeminently the tree of Siberian shamanism. This is
so widely recognized that I need not argue the case and will only

1. VW< [12], p. 154; [10], p. i47. [iy\, p. 256.

2. There is a traditional sa)ing. e:tceedingly old. in Russian:

Po vclatiju sfirhudi'einu. On the pike's bidding.

Po prika^ mukhomoravu. On the Hyoganc's orders.

The pike plays a potent r 61 e in Russian folklore. Here it is yoked with the fly-agaric. Is this couplet
borrowed from a Finnic or Ob^Ugrian people? Do we hear in the fly-agaric’s 'orders' a distant echo
of the orders of the fly-agaric chat are reported in Jochelson and Bogoraz? [21], pp. 26S tT.;
abo [ii], pp, 274 ff.

3. There are of course notable exceptions to this criticism of anthropologists; e.g.. the studies in
cchno-botany carried out by Harold C. Conklin among the Ifugao on the island of Luzdn. in the
Philippines. Vid<{i) Studies inPfii/ippine .‘Inthrcpofojy; in honor o/H. Otl<y Beyer, edited by Mario D. Za-
mora. pp. 204^262; and (2) Tfugao Ethnobotany i9os-i96$: the 1911 Beyer-Mcrrili Rep>or( in Per-
spective', Economic Botany, Vol. 21, No. 3, July- September 1967, pp. 243-272.

213

EPILOGUE

summarize it. We read, for example, that among the Buriat north-
west of Lake Baikal the inhabitants bow morning and evening to two
birches that they have planted in front of their huts. We read that the
birch with seven or eight or nine branches is favoured, these symboliz-
ing the successive gradations in ascending to the ultimate heaven;
and it is held that the trees’ roots penetrate to the very depths of the
earth. As though to symbolize the reach upwards and the reach down-
wards, an eagle (or a mythological bird that we conventionally call an
eagle) surmounts the tree and a serpent dwells at its roots. Again we
read that the shaman selects a stout birch, fells it, and places it in the
center of the yurt that he is going to build for his performance. He
cuts seven or eight or nine notches in it, representing the seven or
eight or nine heavens through which he will ascend. Later in the
course of his ecstatic performance he climbs this tree making use of
the steps, and passes through the hole in the roof through which the
smoke from the fire finds its way, going on his symbolic journey to

the other world.’

Uno Holmberg in the Mythology of All Races summarizes the Si-
berian myths about the birch in his chapter on the Tree of Life. The
spirit of the birch is a middle-aged woman who sometimes appears
from the roots or the trunk of the tree in response to the prayers of
her devotees. She emerges to the waist, her eyes are grave, she has
flowing locks, her bosom is bare, and her breasts are swelling. She
offers milk to the Youth who approaches her. He drinks and his
strength grows a hundred-fold. This myth, which is repeated in
myriad variations, clearly refers to the fly-agaric. But none of Holm-
berg’s sources have called this to his attention. What are the breasts
but the ‘udders’ of the RgVeda, the swelling pileus of the full-grown
fly-agaric? In another tale the tree yields a 'heavenly yellowish liquid.
What is this but the tawny yellow pdvamana of the RgVeda Re-
peatedly we hear of the Food of Life, the Water of Ljfe. the Lake oi

Milk that lies, ready to be tapped, near the roots

There where the Tree grows is the Navel of the Earth, the Axis of the

I. J.-P. Roux, Faune ei Flore Soato dons Us SocUUs Altafques,
at., pp. 9 . French edition, pp. xiv, 116-120.

Paris, 1966, pp- 54 . 59

. M. Eliade, op-

214

TREE OF LIFE AND MARVELOUS HERB

World, the Cosmic Tree, the PUlar of the World. The imagery is

rich in synonyms and doublets. , ii u

Mircea Eliade believes that this cosmological scheme probab y has

an oriental origin, or that its mythical features go back to a palieo-
oriental’ prototype (a toponymic designation that I have difficulty in
assigning to a specific location; apparently it lies somewhere between
the eastern Mediterranean and China), or (after Uno Harva) that the
ensemble of initiation rites among the Siberian tribes comes down
from a Mithralc source.' It is the consensus of all who have written
on the matter that the Siberians could not have fathered the myths
and practices that they have made their own. Or, to put the thought
more accurately, the very idea of such a possibility seems not to have
been entertained by them.

On the contrary I now suggest that the source and focus of diffusion
of all these myths and tales and figures of speech - all this poetic
imagery - were the birch forests of Eurasia. The peoples who emi-
grated from the forest belt to the southern latitudes took with them
vivid memories of the herb and the imagery. The renown of the Herb
of Immortality and the Tree of Life spread also by word of mouth far
and wide, and in the South where the birch and the fly-agaric were
little more than cherished tales generations and a thousand miles
removed from the source of inspiration, the concepts were still stirring
the imaginations of poets, story-tellers, and sages. In these alien lands,
far from the birch forests of Siberia, botanical substitutions were made
for Herb and Tree. Here is where absurdities were introduced into the
legends, where fabulous variations proliferated, where peoples who
had never known the North such as the Semites were influenced by
the ideas and in one way or another incorporated them into their
religious traditions. The end-products of these extravaganzas have
caused scholars much (and I think needless) trouble as they subjected
them to sober exegesis and tried to reconcile them.

In the north to this day we find a notable consistency in the myths
and poems of the Siberian people, having regard to the facts of nature.
Their imagination never takes them more than one or two removes

I. Mircea Eliade, cp, df., pp. xiv, 245-6. 60-70, 120. French edition, pp, 9. 247, 79, 121,

215

EPILOGUE

away from the life history of the fly-agaric, the birch (or pine or fir),
and punk. The contradictions and wild embellishments begin only
when the corpus of myths is translated to the exotic world of the
Near East. Mesopotamia, Iran and India, and China; in short when
the umbilical cord with the natural phenomena is broken. Here then
is nature’s triangle:

Birch

FLY-AGARIC Punk

The fly-agaric holds the place of honour in this Trinity: without it there
would be nothing. Its beauty marches its magic powers. The birch is
also indispensable. Some will find it astonishing that the Siberian
peoples obsen-ed and understood, according to their lights, the my-
corrhizal relationship, only rediscovered by mycologists in 1885. For
the tribesmen the roots of the birch tapped the lake of the Waters of
Life and filled to overflowing with tawny yellow milk the breasts of
the fly-agaric. The noble stance of the superb birch befitted its role as
host and divine guardian. The punk is the least of the Trinity, vital
in the North but meaningless in the South where other methods for
making fire were used. But we must not disregard it. Here for exam-
ple is a legend about punk that survives in many recensions from
Central Asia.

Speaking of the Uighur, a Mongolian tribe, Marco Polo tells us that

They say of their Khan who first ruled over them that he was not
of human origin, but was born of one of those excrescences on the
bark of trees, and that we call esca. From him descended all the

other Khans.’

In another version of the same myth we learn that two trees played a
part in procreating the royal family of the Uighurs, a birch an an

'• per pH„. non e„ d,

Trcccani, Milan and Rome, 19 }^, p. 73*

216

TREE OF LIFE AND MARVELOUS HERB

evergreen resembling a pine.’ Esca is the Italian word for ptink', in

Siberia Fo»ies JojiieuMriits. a i -

J.-P. Roux, the latest writer on the role of the flora among the Altaic

peoples, raises the inevitable question. Speaking of the place that the

birch holds in the shamanic seutices and at the animal sacrifices, he

observes;

Nothing permits us to think that the tree is chosen because of its
capabilities or its appearance or because it acquires by reason of the
ceremony the nature of a venerated tree. The only point that merits
our attention is perhaps without value, the effect of a simple coinci-
dence: the shamanic tree is most often a birch, that is to say, as
everyone knows, a tree whose bark is whitish. With people who
accord so great an importance to the colour white, is not the choice
of the birch motivated by its flashing bark?*

No one had pointed out to M. Roux that the birch is host to the fly-
agaric and touchwood. True, the quality of whiteness has an almost
magical meaning for the northern Eurasians. But the question pre-
sents itself whether this is not secondary, and whether whiteness
enjoys its exalted status partly because it characterizes the host to the
fly-agaric and punk. Or. to put it differently, the fly-agaric and punk
are primary in the hold of the birch on the souls of the natives and it
must follow as night the day that the whiteness of the birch is in most
fitting and wonderful harmony with its supernal attributes.

The Siberian legends and myths as we possess them were recorded
in recent generations. They never cite the link that ties the fly-agaric
to the birch. Perhaps this is because for the Siberian tribesmen the
connection w’as self-evident; any cretin would know as much. Students
of the Siberian cultures, unaware of the thesis that I am developing,
have only by chance, occasionally, asked a few of their Siberian in-
formants a few of the relevant questions, and they have not followed
through. The inquirer w ho goes among primitive people must know
the questions to pose, must see the implications of the answers he
receives, must probe sloxvly with utmost patience and tact, especially

I. J.-P. Roux, op. cil., p. 359.

1. J.-P. Roux, op. rir, p. x86.

217

EPILOGUE

where religious beliefs and practices are concerned. (The anthropol-
ogist has a thankless calling: no matter how thorough he is. his suc-
cessors are certain to reproach him for not having put all the questions
that later seem imperative.) Even so we could hardly ask for better
than Holmberg’s essay on the Tree of Life in Siberia, as it is pre-
sented in the Myt/iology of All Races. The fly-agaric and the Soma
hymns of the RgVeda supply the key that unlocks the myths of his
tribesmen.

The word for ‘birch’ in Sanskrit is bhiirja. Scholars have sometimes
expressed mild surprise that the Aryans remembered, after their
long migration, this Indo-European name, with cognates in almost
all Indo-European tongues; in fact, the birch is, significantly, one of
the few trees of which this can be said. The migration of the Aryans
must have lasted for generations, even centuries. Yet when they first
caught sight of the birch in the Hindu Kush or the Himalayas, we
must assume that right away they exclaimed, ‘What, the bhiirja!’ Of
course communications with the homeland may have been better in
pre-literate Asia than we imagine: we may be victims of the bias of
the literate world against periods in man’s past about which we know
almost nothing. But even if there was complete isolation, bbnrja as the
Tree of Life held a place in their subjective life that they would not
quickly forget. On the other hand bhurja is not mentioned in the
RgVcda, and Abel Bergaigne a century ago pointed out how trifling
was the role of the Tree of Life in the Vedic hymns.* This should also
not surprise us. In the mythological pattern that we are discussing the
fly-agaric held the central position and the Tree of Life was secondary.
The Indo-Aryans possessed the Marvelous Herb, which they bought
from aborigines high in the mountains. With the fly-agaric in hand,
what need had they of the birch? What was out of sight was for the
moment out of mind. But elsewhere in the Near and Middle East the
poets and sages had neither and from the renown of both their imagi-
nations could embroider endless patterns.

On pp. 77-84 we gave three recensions - Indian, Iranian. Chinese-

of the same tale going back to the Somacofly-agaric of the Aryans.

I. Abel Bergaigne: La Religion Vidique. Vol. i. p. i99-

218

TREE OF LIFE AND MARVELOUS HERB

These versions came down from the second half of the first mil en-
nium after Christ. Thus they were late, and we may ask ourselves
how many at that time in the Southern latitudes had knowledge o
the fly-agaric. In each of these versions a novel element was intro-
duced: the notion that the leaves of the Herb of Immortality, it placed
on corpses, would restore them to life. This absurd accretion was
however of ancient provenience: we can trace it back a thousand
years before the Vedic hymns were composed, to the Sumerian frag-
ments of the Epic of Gilgamesh.- The Soma hymns are unique and
precious for their textual integrity, but tales of the Herb of Immorta-
lity (that is, of the fly-agaric) long antedate the RgVeda.

When man first devised a method of inscribing words on clay, ca.
3000 B.C., he poured forth on his tablets, among other items, the
ideas that seemed to him deserving of perpetuation, but ideas not

necessarily indigenous, derived from sources not necessarily known
to the learned men who were shaping the characters. There is a
scholarly bias, as understandable as it is mistaken, to trace the origin
of ideas according to the literacy of peoples, and sometimes to give to
the Near Eastern and Mesopotamian cultures credit for conceptions
that they were merely the first to record. This is, 1 suggest, the case
with the Herb of Immortality and the Tree of Life, whose archetypes
were brought down from the forests of Siberia in the fourth millen-
nium before Christ or earlier. The Hittites and the Mitanni rulers
were Indo-European invaders from the north who preceded the Ar-
yans, and the Sumerians long preceded them, and there were doubt-
less others even earlier of whom we have no historical knowledge.
We must avoid the temptation of supposing that the tribesmen of
Siberia could not have possessed a rich world of the imagination
simply because, not having mastered the art of writing, they are for
us inarticulate. When the Sumerians wrote down the Epic of Gilga-

I. Geo Widengren: The King and iheTree of Life in h'ear Eastern RWigicn (King and Saviour IV),

Uppsala Universiicts Arsskrift 1951:4. Acia UnivcrsUaiis Upsalicnsis; p. 11. In the Near and Middle
Ease graves of prehistoric cultures running back to ca. 6500 D. C. have been found in which the
corpses were painted with ochre or cinnabar. It has been suggested to me that this practice may have
had its origin in the crimson fly-agaric, the Herb of Immortality, and in the notion that the 'leaves
of the sacred osjdM if placed on a corpse would in some way assure it of Eternal Life.

219

EPILOGUE

mesh, we should not think of it as a fresh creation. It already belonged
to the world of mytholog)- and he is a rash scholar who today would
say with assurance that that corpus of myths first saw the light of day
in the Near East or Mesopotamia.

Was Uno Harva mistaken and did the Mithraic beliefs and rites
come down from the forests of what we now call Siberia? Let us look
again at what is known of the Orphic mysteries, and reconsider the
archetype of our own Holy Agape. On what element did the original
devotees commune, long before the Christian era? Certainly the overt
vocabulary relating to the birch and the fly-agaric carried great pres-
tige over millennia throughout the south and east of Asia: the Tree of
Life, the Pillar of the World, the Cosmic Tree, the Axis of the World,
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - all these were variations
stemming back to the birch and the fly-agaric of the northern forests.
The Herb (or Plant) of Life, the Herb of Immortality, the fruit of the
Tree of Life, the Divine Mushroom of Immortality - these are alter-
natives ultimately representing the fly-agaric, no matter how far
removed the poet or sage or king might be from the real thing. In
remote China we have seen the devotees of the Manichaean sect as
late as the 12th century eating ‘red mushrooms’ in such quantity as to
arouse the indignation of a pillar of the Chinese Establishment: is not
this an echo of Siberian shamanism, not having passed direct from
Siberia to China, but tortuously, through successive Middle Eastern
religions, until we reach the last of Mani’s followers, far from his
Iranian home? The Water (or Milk) of Life and the Food of Life are
doublets, the former being the pdvamdna expressed from the latter,
the resplendent Soma. If I am right, here is striking confirmation
of the ideas advanced by Miss Barnard. When we seek the source
of myths, we should chercher, not la femme, but nn phenomene de la

nature.

In the opening chapters of Genesis we are faced with the conflation,
clumsily executed, of two recensions of the fable of the Garden of
Eden. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil are both planted in the center of Paradise. They figure as two
trees but they stem back to the same archetype. They are two names

220

TREE Oi- LIFE AND MARVELOUS HERB

of one tree. The Fruit of the Tree is the fly-agaric harboured by the
birch. The Serpent is the very same creature that we saw in Siberia

dwelling in the roots of the Tree.

Of arresting interest is the attitude of the redactors of Genesis
toward the Fruit of the Tree. Yahweh deliberately leads Adam and
Eve into temptation by placing in tront ot them, in the very middle
of the Garden, the Tree with its Fruit. But Yahweh was not satisfied;
he takes special pains to explain to his creatures that theirs will be the
gift of knowledge if, against his express wishes, they eat ot it. The
penalty for eating it (and for thereby commanding wisdom or edu-
cation) is ‘surely death’. He knew the beings he had created, with
their questing intelligence. There could be no doubt about the issue.
Yahweh must have been secretly proud of his children tor having
the courage to choose the path of high tragedy for themselves and
their seed, rather than serve out their lifetimes as docile dunces. This
is evidenced by his prompt remission of the death penalty. ... It is
clear that among community leaders the hallucinogens were already
arousing passionate feelings: when the story was composed the au-
thentic fly-agaric (or an alternative hallucinogen) must have been
present, for the fable would not possess the sharp edge, the viru-
lence. that it docs if surrogates and placebos were already come into
general use. The presence of the serpent is a happy necessity, for
throughout Eurasia the serpent is intimately associated with the fungal
nomenclature of the mushroom world, or with particular species of
mushrooms, though in nature as it happens they have nothing to do
with each other. Only in regions where snakes are unimportant, as in
the British Isles, is the serpent replaced by the toad. The toad is then
made heir to the curse visited on the serpent, and in turn the toad in-
fects and infests the toadstool. The snake, the toad, and the toadstool
are alike chthonic spirits.

If these perceptions are right, then the mycologists were right also,
in a transcendental sense of which neither they nor the artist had an
inkling, when they saw a serpent offering a mushroom to Eve in the
Fresco of Plaincourault. And Ponce de Leon early in the i6th century
was still seeking in Florida the pool of living water that he might have

221

EPILOGUE

discovered in the Siberian taiga, the pool where Gilgamesh finally
found his Herb of Immortality thousands of years earlier, only to
lose it again to the Serpent who was more subtle than any beast
of the field, the very same Serpent who engaged Eve in pleas-
ant conversation, whose habitation is in the roots of the towering
Siberian birch.

222

acknowledgements

As everyone who knows me will realize, my dependence on others
with specialized knowledge in diflerent fields has been complete. In
Sanskrit and \'edic I have enlisted the cooperation of Dr. Wendy Doni-
ger O’Flaherty, and I have consulted Protessor Daniel H. H. Ingalls of
Harvard University, the late Professor Louis Renou of the Sorbonne,
and Professor Georges Dumezil of the College dc France. For my
first steps in this field 1 am under obligations to Protessor Bart van
Nooten, now on the faculty of the University of California. In matters
of general Indo-European linguistics my friend and revered mentor
has been Professor Georg Morgenstierne of Oslo, who has guided my
footsteps in the Indo-Iranian field, the Kafir and Dardic languages,
and the older tongues of Scandinavia and the Northern Seas. Mrs.
Inger Anne Lysebraate. mycologist ot Oslo, has volunteered to help
me in pointing up the possible references to mushrooms in the early
literatures of Iceland and Scandinavia.

For my Chinese inquiries I am indebted to Wango Weng ^ X'
of New York, to Chou C’hi-k’uen ^ formerly of the faculty of
Hong Kong University, better known to his English-speaking friends
as Steve Chou, now of Leeds University, to Professor Kao Yao-lin
^ formerly of Nanking University, now living in Hong Kong,

and particularly to Kristofer M. Schipper, eleve de I’Ecolc Framjaise
d’Extreme Orient, who on the occasions of my repeated visits was
living in Tainan. Taiwan. Mr. Weng has written all of the Chinese
characters that appear in my book. For guidance in Japanese fungal
matters I have had the valuable assistance of Professor Yoshio Koba-
yaski of Ueno Museum, and of Rokuya Imazeki, co-author with
Tsuguo Hongo of the standard manual in two volumes on Japanese
mushrooms, an excellent field guide that the English-speaking world
has yet to equal.

Dr. Janos Gulya of Budapest has generously given me days of his
time reviewing with me many problems pertinent to my theme in
the Uralic (especially the Ob-Ugrian) languages; and Tamas Radvanyi

223

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

also, who has served us as a gifted and gracious interpreter. The
Publishing Office of the Magj-ar Academy of Sciences has kindly
consented to let me re-publish in English extracts from their Glan-
bensweh umi Folklore der Sibirischen Volker, edited by V. Dioszegi and
originally published in 1963. 1 wish also to record here my appreciation
of the help given me in former years by the late Dr. Sandor Gonyey,
formerly of the Ethnographical Museum of Budapest, and by Dr.
Gabriel Bohus, of the Botanical Department of the Museum of Natural
History, also of Budapest. Professor Robert Austerlitz managed to find
time from the crushing pressure of administrative and teaching duties
at Columbia University to guide my steps in matters of Siberian
linguistics.

In the area of library research for efficient and intelligent service I
thank Marcelle Lecomte Drakert of New' York. Miss Mary Mahoney
and Mrs. Evelyn Waters of Ridgefield, Connecticut, have laboured
long and hard in the preparation of the manuscript for the printer.

The Human Relations Files of New Haven. Conn., were helpful to
me in canvassing sources about the remote peoples of Asia, especially
of Siberia. I am grateful to them for introducing me to Philip Lo-
zinski; it was he who put me on the trail of St. Augustine and the
Chinese Manichxans, and he has shown a continuing interest in my
mushroom inquiries.

For a financial grant that aided my travels in the Far East I am
beholden to the Bollingen Foundation of New York; and for my ap-
pointment as an Honorary Curator of Botany, to the Milwaukee
Public Museum and its Director, Dr. Stephan F. de Borheg)’i.

The Botanical Museum of Harvard University has graciously ap-
pointed me to its faculty as Research Fellow', and the New York Botani-
cal Garden has made me Honorary Research Associate. These dignities
have served to open doors for me in the Far East where I had been
unknown. It has also been a privilege to enjoy the facilities of these
two institutions and to have had access at all times to the guidance and
counsel of Professor Paul C. Mangelsdorf, until lately director of the
Museum, and of Dr. Richard Evans Schultes, its Curator of Economic
Botany and now' also the Executive Director of the Museum.

224

ACKNOWLEDGHMBNTS

It is ahvavs a pleasure lor me to express my eontinuing gratitude to
Professor Roger Heim. Menibre dc l lnstitut. tor his help in lurthenng
mv inquiries. He and his excellent staff at the Laboratoire de Crvpto-
gamie. of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. seem always
delighted to work on my questions, little and big, and the reception
that they accord me on my frequent visits to Paris moves me deeply.
From the beginning Professor I ieim has show n a particular interest
in every aspect of my researches into the strange problem of the ily-
agaric: he has initiated his own programme of experimental studies,
which are being reported from time to time in the Reviie de Mycoh^te.
In pursuit of our mutual interests he and 1 have traveled together to
the farthest reaches of the inhabited world.

Among those to whom 1 am beholden tor collaboration I cannot re-
frain from citing Dr. Giovanni Mardersteig of \'erona. Eminent ty-
pographer. scholar, and artist, he has not only shown endless patience
in the printing of my manuscripts: on numerous occasions out ol the
store of his learning he has contributed to my argument, and he and
his family by their kindnesses make my visits to \'erona memorable
events in my life. What a pleasure it is. when probing the unknow n
in the cultural history of our race, to be brought into touch with men
like Professor Heim and Dr. Mardersteig.

I had hoped that this treatise on the Herb of Longevity would appear
in 1966, on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Roman Jakobson, to
whom I have dedicated it. But in 1968 it is by two years that much
more appropriate. May the Tree ot Knowledge, possessed as it is of a
private line to the Herb, continue for many years to bestow abundant
blessings on a favoured son !

R. Gordon W.^sson

Danburv. Connecticut
June 1968

225

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EXHIBITS

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1 .

THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

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PRELIMINARY NOTE

W E have assembled here the writings of those who have described
the practice of eating the fly-agaric in Siberia. In Section A we
include c.\plorers. travelers, and anthropologists, as well as a tew
native folk tales and a Vogul hymn gathered and translated by the
anthropologists and linguists. In Section B wc have grouped together
linguists - mostly Finnish and Hungarian - who give us evidence of
a rtv-agaric word pattern that presents us with a fascinating aspect
of social historv. Of the many writers about the peculiar mushroomic
habits of the Siberian tribesmen who have pas.sed on the information
at second or third hand, we have chosen three for particular reasons
to include in our Section C. One is Carl Hartwich. whose Die uiensc/ili-
c/ieii Genussniitfel set a landmark in the history of pharmacology: it
was published in 1911. Another is Professor Mircca Eliadc, who enjoys
wide renown as a student ot the history of religions and religious
practices throughout the world. The third is a paper by two Soviet
scientists.

Undoubtedly there are primary sources that have eluded us. per-
haps important ones. We have searched diligently, but the sea of
writings about Siberia is so vast, the sources so widely scattered, that
some could easily have escaped our net.

We have arranged the selections roughly in their chronological
order.

231

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A. Explorers, Travelers, and .-lnt/iropologiiti'

[I]

Kamii-nski Dluz>k. Adam. Dyarusz uivzienki moskiewskicgo, nihist
i micjsc. (A Diary of Muscovite Captivity. Towns and hcttlcincnts)
In W'.irt.i. A collection of articles. Edited by the Rev. A. Maryanski.
Poznan, Poland. Published in 1874. PP- t'lc passage relating

to mushrooms is on p. 3^^--

[This is the c.irlicst report that we have lound of fly-agaric eating among
the tribesmen of Siberia. It is an entry in the journal of a Polish prisoner of
war made in 1658. He is describing the habits ol the Ob-Ugrian Ostyak ot the
Irtysh region in Western Siberia, tributary to the River Ob. - row]

Xhey neither sow nor plow; they live only on fish and fowl of which thete
is a great wealth there, namely swans, geese, ducks such as we don t have.
These very Ostyaki go about in fish skins and they have footwear Irom the
same and parkas from geese and swans. They dwell in camps on islands.
Thev smoke various fish for the winter and tear oil the fat from the lish
into a birchbark vessel, two vessels full: and they drink it warm by the quart,
to our great astonishment. And they make nets from nettles and some
have shirts from nettles. They cat certain fungi in the shape ol fly-agarics,
and thus they get drunk worse than on vodka, and for them that s the very
best banquet.

[2]

Oglodlin. N. 'The First Japanese in Russia in 1701-1705.’ Russkimi
Shirimi. October 1891, pp. 19-24.

[This article in the Russian review contains as Section V the story of Den-
bei’, the first Japanese to arrive in Russia. He came from Osaka; and his
vessel after leaving Yedo (Tokyo) in the last years of the i8th century was
thrown off course by storms. The crew finally sighted Kamchatka and took
refuge in the estuary of a small river. The natives, who are called in the
text Kuril Islanders, took three of the Japanese prisoners, of whont two later
died, Denbei being left. The Russian explorer Atlasov. passing that way,
heard tell of the prisoner, and the latter was led to him. After further vicissi-
tudes Atlasov took him to Moscow where he was presented to Peter the

233

EXHIBITS

Great, w ho insisted that he learn Russian and that he teach his own language -
Japanese - to a few Russians. He gave an account of what had happened to
him. Though he learned some Russian and could make himself understood
in the language of Kamchatka, his account is filled with discrepancies attribu-
table to errors in communication. ‘Denbei’ is the name of this Japanese
merchant in the Russian transcription; his Japanese name is unknown to
us. His testimony is almost, but not quite, worthless. We have included it
for the sake of completeness and because it establishes the earliest date
on record when the Russian Imperial Court was apprised of the Siberian
practice of eating the fly-agaric. In telling of his misfortunes among the
inhabitants of Kamchatka, he had this to say, according to the Russian
text. - RGw]

They [the natives of Kamchatka] place their fish in pits, covering them on
top with twigs and grass, and when the fish turn all mouldy, they put them
into wooden troughs, add water, and heat this concoction with hot stones,
also mixing in some fly-agarics. They drink this brew, and treat their guests
with it, and get drunk on it. However he [Denbei] and his companions
could not drink this concoction but ate roots and fish which were not yet
too mouldy.

Strahlenberg, Filip Johann von. An Historico-Geographical Descrip-
tion of the North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia; But more
particularly of Russia. Siberia, and Great Tartary; etc. . . . London.
1736. Second printing. 1738- Originally published in Stockholm in
1730. Translated also into French, p. 397 of the English edition.

[Von Strahlenberg was a Swedish Colonel who passed twelve years in Si-
beria as a prisoner of war. He was chiefly in Tobolsk where he assemble
much accurate and valuable information about the peoples of Siberia. He is
describing the practices of the Koryak tribe in the extreme northeast of

Siberia. - rgw]

The Russians svho trade with them [Koryak], carry thither a Kmd of Mush-
rooms, called, in the Russian Tongue, Muchumor, which they exchange or
Squirils, Fox, Hermin, Sable, and other Furs; Those who are nch among
Zw. lay up large Provisions of these Mushrooms, for the Winter. When
Ly make f Feaft, they pour Water upon some of these Mushrooms and
boil them. They then drink the Liquor, which intoxicates them. The poorer

234

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Sort who cannot afford to lav in a Store of these Mushroonts, post themselves,
on these Occasions, round the Huts of the Rich, and watch the Opportun.ty
of the Guests con.ing down to make Water; And then hold .a \\ ooden
Bowl to receive the Urine, which they drink off greedily, as having still some
Virtue of the Mushroom in it. and by this Way they also get Drunk In
Spring and Summer they catch a large Quantity of Fish, and digging Holes
in the Ground, which they line with the Bark of Birch, they hll them with
it and cover the Holes over with Earth. As soon as they think the Fish is
rotten and lender, they take out some of it. pour Water upon it. and boil it
with red-hot Pebbles (as the Finnlandians do their Beer) and feed upon it. as
the greatest Delicacy in the World. This Mess stinks so abominably, that the
Russians who deal with them, and who are none of the most squeamish, are
themselves not able to endure it. Of this Liquor they likewise drink so im-
moderately, that they will be quite intoxicated, or drunk with it.

[ 4 ]

Krasheninnikov, Stepan. Opisaniye Zyomli Kanichatki. (Description
of Kamchatka Land) St. Petersburg. 1755.

[Translations into English, French, and German appeared in the i8th cen-
tury. We have had made a fresh translation from the Russian, finding that the
i8th century translations corrupted the meaning and shortened the text. The
edition that we used was edited under the auspices of the Soviet Academy of
Sciences, with notes, and published in Moscow and Leningrad in 1949. - rgw]

Chapter 14

CONCERNING THE FEASTS AND GAMES
OF Kamchatka

They hold feasts whenever the people of an ostrog [stockade] wish to
entertain their neighbors, especially whenever there is a wedding or some
successful trapping venture, and these are spent, for the most part, in
overeating, dancing, and singing. On such occasions the guests are treated
by their hosts to large goblets of opanga so generously that they have to
vomit more than once.

Sometimes for their enjoyment they also use the mtifc/iomer, the well-
known mushroom that we ordinarily use for poisoning flies. [Miife/iCHior -
fly-agaric] It is first soaked in must of kiprei [EpilobiiiHi migusti/oliiim], which

235

EXHIBITS

they drink, or else the dried mushrooms are rolled and swallowed whole,
which method is very popular.

The first and usual sign by which one can recognize a man under the
influence of the Hiuk/iomor is the shaking of the extremities, which will
follow after an hour or less, after which the persons thus intoxicated have
hallucinations, as if in a fever; they are subject to various visions, terrifying
or felicitous, depending on differences in temperament; owing to which
some jump, some dance, others cry and suffer great terrors, while some
might deem a small crack to be as wide as a door, and a tub of water as deep
as the sea. But this applies only to those who overindulge, while those who
use a small quantity experience a feeling of extraordinary lightness, joy.
courage, and a sense of energetic well-being, such as the Turks are said to
experience when they have partaken of opium.

It is worth noting that all those who have eaten the iHtife/iomor unanim-
ously affirm that all their extravagant actions at the time are carried out
on orders of the mnHwiHor, which secretly commands them. But all their
actions are so harmful to them that, if there were no one to look out for
them, not many of them would remain alive. Concerning excesses of the
Kamchadals, which happen among them, I will make no mention, since I
have not witnessed any personally and the Kamchadals do not like to talk
about this; but then it could be, too, that it does not come to such extremes
among them, either because they have become accustomed to the JHwfcluJ-
mor, or because they do not use it to excess. However, in respect to the Cos-
sacks who have eaten the above mushroom, I shall report some wild behav-
ior, some of which I personally have witnessed, and some of which I heard
from the perpetrators of those actions, o * from other trustworthy persons.

An orderly of Lieutenant-Colonel Merlin who was with the investigation
in Kamchatka was commanded by the mukhomor to strangle himself under
a delusion that this would cause other people to admire him. This, in fact,
might have come to pass, had not his friend restrained him.

Another of the local residents [Cossacks] had a vision of Hell and a terri-
fying fiery chasm into which he was to be cast; for which reason, following
the orders of the iiiufc/ic’mer, he was forced to get down on his knees and
confess all the sins that he could remember committing. His friends, of
whom there w'ere many in the common room where the intoxicated man
was confessing, heard this with great amusement, while he seemed to believe
that he was confessing his sins in the privacy of the sacrament m God alone.
Because of this he was made the butt of much deUberate ridicule, since,
among other things, he related some things which should have best remained

unknown to others.

236

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

A ccrt.iin soldier, thev say. used to eat the iiniF/ietner in moderate quanti-
ties whenever he had to go on a long journey, and thus was ab e to cover
great distances without any fatigue; but. ultimately, having indulged to the
point of delirium, he crushed his own testicles and died.

The son of a Cossack from Bolsheretsk, who was in my employ as an
interpreter, had been made drunk on iiiiiir/ioinor without his knowledge,
and attempted to cut his own abdomen on the iniiF/ioinors orders, from
which he was barely saved in the last minute, for his hand was restrained

in the very act.

Kamchadals and settled Kor>aks also eat jimFhoinor while planning to
kill somebody. Incidentally, among the settled Koryaks the iiiiiFliemor is
held in such high esteem that those who are intoxicated are nor allowed to
urinate on the ground but are furnished by others with a dish for this
purpose, which urine they drink and also do wild things like those who have
eaten the mushroom; for they get the miiF/ioHior from Kamchadals, as it
does not grow in their own country. Four mushrooms, or less, constitute
a moderate use. but for a high degree of intoxication up to ten mushrooms
are usually consumed.

Members of the female sex neither indulge in eating to excess nor partake
in miiFlioinor consumption, owing to which all their amusements consist of
talking, dancing, and singing . . .

[In the above account Krasheninnikov tells of four Europeans who ate
the mushroom. Three were certainly exhibitionists, such as make a show
of themselves in the West with alcohol. The third, who is said to have died,
was reported as hearsay. Krasheninnikov was a careful author, and he con-
cedes that such extravagant behaviour may not occur among the natives.
He adds that the Kamchadal and the settled Koryak eat the fly-agaric 'while
planning to kill somebody’. He gives no examples and as no subsequent
writer, not even his own colleague Steller. repeats the statement, much less
documents it, we may disbelieve this. Krasheninnikov wrote early and is of
historical importance but we possess later informants immeasurably better
equipped to tell us about the tribesmen. This single sentence, familiar
to Odman [vide infra, [43I] may be responsible for the belief that berserk-
raging came out of Siberia. But Krasheninnikov nowhere makes mention of
wild ferocious behaviour suggestive of berserk-raging. - rgw]

[In 1949 a definitive edition of Krasheninnikov was published by the Soviet
Academy of Sciences, edited by Lev Semenovich Berg. In this edition Berg

237

EXHIBITS

shows himself aware of the cultural significance of the fungi in the Kamchadal
society in a note, p. 236, on a passage in Krasheninnikov where the latter
speaks of the Kamchadal as ‘omnivorous creatures, for they pass by neither
nor ninfe/iomor. though the former has no taste and does not satisfy
hunger, and the latter is obviously harmful’. Berg's footnote on this passage
follows: - RGw]

The Kamchadal . . . will pass by neither z^iagra nor mukhomor. Zhagra,
according to the Dictionary of Dal', is another name for punk, touchwood,
tree fungus, Polyporace®. Referred to here is the white agaric (family Poly-
poraccx), which grows on trees. The body of the fungus Pomes sp. was
formerly used as tinder: some of them have medicinal application. Certain
species of the genus Polyporus are edible. Concerning the use of the variety
of fungi Polyporus that grows on birch trees (der weisse B<Jnm-SclnvflHi»H in
German) for alimentary purposes, Steller has this to report (p. 92): the
Kamchadal knock them off birches with sticks, break them up with axes, and
eat them frozen. S. Yu. Lipshitz and Yu. A. Liverovskiy (1937. p. 197) report
that ashes of the fungus Polyporus (Polyporus sp.) are used in Kamchatka as
snuff. Concerning the use which the Kamchadal make of the 'birch tinder’
as a pain killer. Krasheninnikov reports on p. 443. Concerning fungi Polyporus
of Kamchatka see: A. S. Bondartsev: Fungi of the Family Polyporacea, Telepho-
rea, aud Hydttea, Collected in Kamchatka by V. P. Savic/t. (From the Expedition
to Kamchatka of F. P. Ryabushinskiy. Botanical Series, Part 2, Moscow, I 9 i 4 t
pp. 525-534.) The most wide-spread fungus in Kamchatka is Fomes iguiarius
(L.). harmful to rock birch, white birch, alder, and aspen. Fomes fomentarius
(L.) is found on both varieties of birch. There are many other species of this
genus and also other genera. Of the genus Polyporus in Kamchatka, Polyporus
sulfureus (Bull.) is found on the larch and P. varius Fries on the poplar.

Steller also reports (pp. 92-93) on the use of the miife/iouior (fly-agaric) as
an intoxicant by Kamchadal, Kor)'ak, and Yukagir. See also L. S. Berg,
Discovery of Kamchatka . . ., Third Edition, 1946* PP- 163-164.

[Zhagra in Russian is a synonym of trut, the former being derived from a
root 'to burn’ and the latter from ‘to rub'. Both mean primarily Fames
fomentarius, the shelf fungus that grows on many trees but that is pnmanly
linked with the birch because the birch is its commonest host in the forest
belt of Eurasia. Many species of fungus have been used as the primary
tinder in the making of fire, but for 'touchsvood' or ‘punk' Fomes fomentarius
has enjoyed primacy from the beginning. At Star Carr in Yor s ire quan
ties of Fomes fomentarius were found in the site of a settlement dating from

238

1 . THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

0 000 to 10.000 years ago, some still attached to b.rch logs.
flint The touchwood was adjacent to the hearthstones. (Vide J. G. D. Clark
.ind others: E.tcav.iliotis ut Star Carr. Cambridge University Press. I 9 S 4 .
pp. i 7 -i 8 : also E. J. H. Corner: 'Report on the Fungus-Brackets from Star
Carr, Scamer.’ in the ‘Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Star Carr,
Seamer. Scarborough. Yorkshire’. T(ie Preliistonc Society, xvi. 1950. pp. 123 - 4 -)
The British Isles were still attached to the Continent by land, and the site was
early Mesolithic, apparently a temporary camp of hunters, not long after
the last ice age. The culture was the same as had been previously described
at Maglemose (the 'Great Bog’), Denmark, where also Foinfs/ciiieiitariHS was
found adjacent to the hearth stones. (\'ide N. Fabritius Buchwald and Sigurd
Hansen: ‘Om Fund af Tondersvamp fra Postglacialtidcn i Danmark’,
Dtiiiiiiarks geelegiske L^iidersogelse, iv Rxkke, Bd. 2, Nr. 11, 1934 -)

[The fungus that the Kamchadal knock off birches and then eat frozen is
certainly difVerent, probably Polyporiis Fetulhiiis, a soft, white, rather spongy
or rubbery growth on the birch, without much taste, which is sometimes
eaten raw or cooked by mycophiles in Europe and the United States. - rgw]

[5]

Steller. Georg Wilhelm. Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka,
dcssen Einwohnern. deren Sitten, Nahmen, Lcbensarc und verschie-
denen Gewohnheiten. (Description of Kamchatka, its Inhabitants,
their Customs, Names, Way of Life, and Different Habits) Leipzig.
1774- pp- 92 - 93 .

[Steller, a member of the Krasheninnikov expedition, stayed on and later
published a valuable account of his life in Kamchatka. - rgw]

Among the mushrooms the poisonous fly-agaric (in Russian Jiiuc/iaiiieor, in
Italmen [Kamchadal] gliugakop) is highly valued. In the Russian settlements
this habit has been lost for a long time. However, around the Tigil and
towards the Koty’ak border it is very’ much alive. The fly-agarics arc dried,
then eaten in large pieces w'ithout chewing them, washing them down with
cold water. After about half an hour the person becomes completely intoxi-
cated and experiences extraordinary visions. The Koryak and Yukagir are
even fonder of this mushroom. So eager are they to get it that they buy it
from the Russians wherever and whenever possible. Those who cannot afford
the fairly high price drink the urine of those who have eaten it, whereupon
they become as intoxicated, if not more so. The urine seems to be more

239

EXHIBITS

powerful than the mushroom, and its effect may last through the fourth or
the fifth man. Despite the fact that I have personally made these observations
in 1739. some people have contradicted my experiences. 1 have therefore
taken great pain to establish the truthfulness of what has been recorded here.
Reports from persons whose authority cannot be attacked have confirmed
my findings. Thus a man from the lower gentry named Kutukov, having to
guard the reindeer herd, has noticed that these animals have frequently eaten
that mushroom, which they like very much. Whereupon they have behaved
like drunken animals, and then have fallen into a deep slumber. When the
Koryak encounter an intoxicated reindeer, they tie his legs until the mush-
room has lost its strength and effect. Then they kill the reindeer. If they
kill the animal while it is drunk or asleep and eat of its flesh, then everybody
who has tasted it becomes intoxicated as if he had eaten the actual fly-agaric.

[ 6 ]

Georgi, Johann Gottlieb. Russia: or, A Compleat Historical Account
of all the Nations which Compose that Empire. London. 1780. First
published in German in St. Petersburg, 1776-1780. pp. 189-190.

Their drink [of the Ostyak] is water, broth, and fish-soups, a great deal
of milk, and brandy whenever they arc rich enough to buy any. The
Ostyaks are very fond of getting drunk; and, as they have but seldom the
means of procuring strong liquors for that purpose, they get intoxicated
by smoking a great quantity of strong tobacco, and by chewing a kind of

mushroom called the fly mushroom Numbers of the Siberians have a

way of intoxicating themselves by the use of mushrooms, especially the
Ostyaks who dwell about Narym. To that end they either eat one of these
mushrooms quite fresh, or perhaps drink the decoction of three of them.
The effect shews itself immediately by sallies of wit and humour, which by
slow degrees arises to such an extravagant height of gaiety, that they begin
to sing, dance, jump about, and vociferate: they compose amorous sonnets,
heroic verses, and hunting songs. This drunkenness has the peculiar quality
of making them uncommonly strong; but no sooner is it over than they
remember nothing that has passed. After twelve or sixteen hours of thi^
enjoyment they fall asleep, and, on waking, find themselves very low-spirite
from the extraordinary tension of the nerves: however, they feel much less
head-ache after this method of intoxication than is produced by spirituous
liquors; nor is the use of it followed by any dangerous consequences.

240

1. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Frojn tlie chapter *>»i li«e ‘T/je . V'ol. 2 . p. 394-

Thcv never wash their hands or any part of their person. Their skin-sacks
that hold the milk stink abominably, and communicate a horrid taste to
their contents. In the summer season they drink so much koumiss, and smoke
tobacco so constantly, that they arc frequently drunk. When they intend to
get fuddled in a decent manner, they endeavour to procure the Russian
brandy: but. as they are but seldom able to obtain it. they supply this want
bv mushrooms of an inebriating quality, as the Ostyaks, and several other

people of Siberia do.

[So far as I know, this is the only passage in the Siberian texts that attributes
the eating of the fly-agaric to the Yakut, whose language belongs to the
Altaic family. Perhaps fringe settlements of Yakut had taken to the habit
from their neighbors, e.g., the Yukagir, who apparently in the i8th century
were still eating the iinitlionwr. (Sten Bergman s statement [27I about the
Lamut addiction to the fly-agaric falls into the same category of isolated
testimony.) Or in Georgi’s case he may simply be mistaken. His book with
its wealth of detail about the peoples of Siberia holds the reader’s attention
but it is exasperating in that it is inadequately documented: the reader
usually docs not know what the author observed personally and what he
took from others, nor who the others were nor whether they were reli-
able. The diaries of his travels in Siberia would be most interesting, but
we do not know whether they survive. - rgw]

[7]

Lesseps, Jean Baptiste Barthclemy. Baron de. Journal historique du
voyage de M. de Lesseps. . . . Paris. 1790. Translated into German
and English. The English edition appeared in 1790 in two volumes
in London, entitled ‘Travels in Kamchatka, during the Years 1787
1788’. The following is from the English edition, Vol. 2, pp. 90-91
and 104-5.

[How supercilious and superficial are this French aristocrat’s remarks about
the fly-agaric, which he seems not to have recognized as a mushroom common
in his own country. - rgw]

241

EXHIBITS

Their passion for strong liquors, increased by the dearness of brandy, and
the difficulty of procuring it on account of their extreme distance, hJs led
them to invent a drink, equally potent, which they extract from a red
mushroom, known in Russia as a strong poison by the name of moukhamorr.'
They put it in a vessel with certain fruits, and it has scarcely time to clarify
\\hen their friends are invited to partake of it. A noble emulation inflames
the guests, and there is a contest of who is best able to disburden the master
of the house of his nectar. The entertainment lasts for one, two. or three
days, till the beverage is exhausted. Frequently, that they may not fail of
being tipsy, they eat the raw mushroom at the same time. It is astonishing
that there are not more examples of the fatal effects of this intemperance.
I have seen however some amateurs made seriously ill. and recovered with
difficulty; but e.xperience does not correct them, and upon the first occasion
that offers, they return to their brutish practice. It is not from absolute
sensuality, it is not from the pleasure of drinking a liquor, that by its flavour
creates an irresistible craving for more; they seek merely in these orgies a
state of oblivion, of stupefaction, of total brutishness, a cessation of existence,
if I may so call it, which constitutes their only enjoyment, and supreme
felicity.

... On the eve of their magic ceremonies, they pretend indeed to fast all
the day, but they make up for this abstinence at night by a profusion of the
motikamcrr, the intoxicating poison I have described, which they eat and
drink to satiety. This preparatory intoxication they consider as a duty. It is
probable that they feel its effects the next day, and that they derive from it
an elevation of spirits that contributes to derange their minds, and give
them the necessary strength to go through their extravagant transports.

[ 8 ]

Sarychev, Gavriil Andreevich. Achtjahrige Reise im Nordostteil Si-
biriens das Eismeer und den Ostlichen Ozean {i785‘i793)- (An
Eight-Year Voyage in Northeastern Siberia, on the Arctic Ocean
and the Northeast Pacific) Leipzig. I 905 'i 5 - Translated from the
Russian original published in 1802 in St. Petersburg, pp. 274-5.

[There is no direct reference to the fly-agaric, but on pp- 274-5 of the re-
print published in 1954 we find a curious report of the death of two reindeer

1. Ic is used in the Russian houses co destroy insects.

242

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

in the Chukchi country. Their death is attributed to an excessive intake of
human urine. It sounds as though the urine in question was impregnated
with the metabolite of the fly-agaric. - rgw]

In the last few days the Chukchi have had two dead reindeer and take the
cause to be that they had given them too much human urine to drink. They
give them some from time to time in order to make them strong and improve
their staying-power. The fluid has the same effect on the reindeer as intoxicat-
ing drink has on people who have fallen victim to the drinking habit. The
reindeer become just as drunk and have just as great a thirst. At night they
are noisy and keep running around the tents in the expectation of being
given the longed-for fluid. And when some is spilled out into the snow, they
start quarreling, tearing away from each other the clumps of snow moistened
with it. Every Chukchi saves his urine in a sealskin container which is espe-
cially made for the purpose and from which he gives his reindeer to drink.
Whenever he wants to round up his animals, he only has to set this container
on the ground and slowly call out 'Girach, Girach !’, and they promptly come
running toward him from afar.

[ 9 ]

Kopec, Joseph. Dziennik . . . (Diary of a Journey Along the Whole
Length of Asia. . .; in Polish) Wroclaw. 1837. An amplified text was
published in Berlin, in 1863. from which this translation from Polish,
done by Prof. Wiktor Weintraub, was made. pp. 198-202.

[Joseph Kopec, a Brigadier in the Polish army.w'as a man of letters. Accord-
ing to Professor Wiktor Weintraub of Harvard University', he was mentally
unbalanced and prone to exaggeration but in spite of his weaknesses his good
faith can be relied upon. He was not a liar and he ate the mushrooms. The
year is 1797 or perhaps 1796. Kopec is in Kamchatka. He is ill and running a
fever. He arrives with his companions at a native settlement covered with
snow-drifts and enters the yurt, as is customary, through the opening at the
top of the roof from which the smoke of the fire emerges. He then describes
what happens. - rgw]

Hardly a few moments had passed when a sudden change of air brought
about a great change in my sick body. The air of this closed yurta, always
stinking, mixed with the acrid scent of whale-fat used as lamp oil. made me
so weak that I thought the hour of my death would strike. Thus abandoning

243

EXHIBITS

the fire and tea I called for my evangelist in the hope of getting some help
from this man. a bit more educated, as I understood, than other people in
the art of healing. After having learned about my mishap, the evangelist
comes a little later, he approaches the fire, and ordering me to sit up he tells
me first to drink my tea. While I am doing this, the Kamchadals bring from
the middle of the tent a large number of ermine hides and deer skins.
Feeling a bit revived. I ask what is the meaning of this. To which the evange-
list, complying with my curiosity, says to me:

‘Before 1 give you the medicine, I must tell you something important.
You have lived for two years in Lower Kamchatka but you have known
nothing of the treasures of this land. Here,’ opening some birch bark in which
a few mushrooms were wrapped, ‘are mushrooms that are, I can say, mirreu-
lous. They grow only on a single high mountain close to the volcano and
they are the most precious creations of nature.’

‘Take into account, Sir,’ the evangelist goes on, 'that the hides brought by
local people I receive as gifts in exchange for these mushrooms. They would
even give all their possessions, had I many of them and if only I sought to
take advantage of the situation. These mushrooms have a special and as
though supernatural quality. Not only do they help the man who uses them
but he sees his own future as well. Since you are weak you should eat one
mushroom. It will give you the sleep you are lacking.’

Hearing so many strange things about the merits of that mushroom, I
was in doubt for a long time whether I should make use of it. However, the
wish to recover my health and above all to sleep overcame my fears, and so
I ate half my medicine and at once stretched out, for a deep sleep overtook
me. Dreams came one after the other. I found myself as though magnetized*
by the most attractive gardens where only pleasure and beaut)' seemed to
rule. Flowers of different colours and shapes and odours appeared before my
eyes: a group of most beautiful women dressed in white going to and fro
seemed to be occupied with the hospitality of this earthly paradise. As if
pleased with my coming, they offered me diff^erent fruits, berries, and flow ers.
This delight lasted during my whole sleep, which was a couple of hours longer
than my usual rest. After having awakened from such a sweet dream, I
discovered that this delight was an illusion. I was distressed that it had dis-
appeared, as if it had been true happiness. These impressions made pleasant
for me the few hours that remained until the end of the day. Having received
such bewitching support from the miraculous mushroom and even having
been fortified by sleep such as I had not had for a long time. I started to have

. . When Kopec wroic. 'm.gnemn,' had recendy caught the attention of sdenthts and intellectuals
in Europe: this explains his usage of the word. - row.

244

I. THE ELV-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

confidence in its supernatur.il qualities (as iiiv evanj'elist had taught me to
do), and with the approach of night I asked mv physician for a second helping.
He was pleased with my courage and at once bearing the offering of his
friendly benevolence, he gave me a similar whole mushroom. Having eaten
this stronger dose, I fell soundly asleep in a few minutes. For several hours
new visions carried me to another world, and it seemed to me that I was

ordered to return to earth so that a priest could take my confession. This
impression, although in sleep, was so strong that 1 awoke and asked for my
evangelist. It was precisely at the hour of tnidnight and the priest, e\ er eager
to render spiritual services, at once took his stole and heard my confession
with a joy that he did not hide from me. About an hour after the confession
1 fell asleep anew and I did not wake up for twenty-four hours. It is dilTicult,
almost impossible, to describe the visions 1 had in such a long sleep; and
besides there are other reasons that make me reluctant to do so. What I
noticed in these visions and what I passed through are things that 1 felt I
had seen or e.vperienced some time before, and also things that I would never
iimigine even in my thoughts. I can only mention that from the period when
I was first aware of the notions of life, all that 1 had seen in front of me from
my fifth or si.vth year, all objects and people that 1 knew as time went on.
and with whom 1 had some relations, all my games, occupations, actions,
one following the other, day after day. year after year, in one word the picture
of my whole past became present in my sight. Concerning the future, different
pictures followed each other which will not occupy a special place here since
they are dreams. 1 should add only that as if inspired by magnetism I came
across some blunders of my evangelist and 1 warned him to impro\ e in those
matters, and I noticed that he took these warnings almost as the voice of
Revelation.

It is not for me to argue about the usefulness and the influence on human
health of this miraculous mushroom. But I can state that its medical useful-
ness, had it been known among more educated people.s. should have earned
it a place among so many known remedies of nature in the matter of fighting
human maladies. Can anyone deny that in spite of our vast knowledge (rela-
tive to our forces) of natural phenomena, there still exist almost countless
phenomena about which we can only guess? Can one put a limit to nature
at a point that delimits the possibilities of inquiries and discoveries of human
research? Innumerable effects of recently discovered magnetic forces, effects
that cannot be detected by physical means nor pinpointed with any degree
of preasion to some specification on the human body, seem to reconcile in
some measure the controversy concerning this mushroom. It is then possible
t at in the sleep brought by the influence of this mushroom, a man is able to

245

EXHIBITS

see at least some of his real past and if not the future at least his present re-
lations. If someone can prove that both the effect and the influence of the
mushroom are non-existent and erroneous, then I shall stop being defender
of the miraculous mushroom of Kamchatka.

Whatever may be the nature and qualities of the above-mentioned mush-
room. I must confess that the taking of it had a powerful effect on my mind,
as well as a strong impression [on my senses], so that I grew disquieted to a
certain degree, from which passing into anxiety I became finally gloomy.
This credulity having even the power of faith was based first of all on the
conviction of the evangelist that my truthful visions were a true warning of
heaven, and, secondly, on a conviction coming from within me. when later
I perceived, being awake, the confirmation of what the dreams had predicted.
This led me to have confidence in the dependability of ray dreams about
the future. However, as time passed, during my travels, this faith started to
slacken and when its influence on my mind ended, a peace of soul returned
to me together with better health.

[ 10 ]

L.^ngsdorf, Georg Heinrich von. Einige Bemerkungen, die Eigen-
schaften des Kamtschadalischen Fliegenschwammes betreffend.
(Some Remarks Concerning the Properties of the Kamchadal Fly-
Agaric) Wetterauischen Gesellschaft fiir die gesammte Naturkunde.
Annalen, Vol. i, No. 2, Frankfurt M. 1809. pp- 249-256. Paper sub-
mitted by the author in French to the Russian Imperial Academy of
Sciences in St, Petersburg.

Xhe plant kingdom is of immeasurable influence and usefulness for
mankind, since it supplies most of our clothing, food, drink, and shelter. The
medical science of primitive peoples consists entirely in their knowledge of
the more or less efficacious plants, and everj-day experience confirms the
fact that even a number of plants native to our own regions are known to
many uneducated nations almost more thoroughly than they are to us.

To demonstrate this assertion. I should like to say at this point something
about the nature and effects of the fly-agaric, which we regard as extremely
poisonous but which is used by various inhabitants of northeastern Asia as an
intoxicant just as wine, brandy, arrack, opium, kava. and the like are used
by other nations. During my stay in Kamchatka I had the opportunity
to gather detailed information on the effects of this mushroom, and to-

246

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

dav I shall try to tell you the most important points as briefly as possible.

Ordinarily it would be necessary first to make a closer examination of the
nature of the mushroom, in so far as possible, and thereby show whether,
and to what extent, the mushrooms found in those areas differ from our own.

However, since time is too short at this moment. I shall not give any
detailed description of the ordinary fly-agaric and shall confine myself to
pointing out that, at least on the basis of four dried specimens which 1
brought with me from Kamchatka and of a drawing made there by Privy
Councillor Tilesius. it does appear that some difference exists between
Kamchadal mushrooms and those of our own country: the Kamchadal
mushroom has a cap with a navel-like protuberance in the middle, its stalk
seems to grow thicker towards the base, and, in particular, the lamellae may
be yellowish rather than white. However, since this cannot be stated with any
certainty until the living mushroom has again been observed in Kamchatka,
we shall regard it for the time being as a special variety:

mHSCurirt var. CaHitsc/irtticu.

Isolated fly-agarics grow alntost everywhere in Kamchatka, in birch forests
and on dry plains. They are found most abundantly in the central part of the
peninsula, especially around Vishna Kamchatka and Milkova Derevna. In
some years they are seen in great numbers, but in others they are extremely
scarce.

The Kamchadals gather them usually during the hottest months of July
and August: they maintain that those that dry by themselves in the earth,
on the stalk, and that are somewhat furry and velvety to the touch on the
under side of the cap have a far stronger narcotic effect than those picked
fresh and strung up to dry in the air.

The size is variable, with diameters ranging from i-i [3 to 5-6 inches.

The smaller mushrooms, which are bright red and covered with many
white warty protuberances, are said to be far stronger in narcotic power than
the larger ones, which are pale red and have few white spots.

Since the establishment of closer contacts with the Russians, the Kamchadals
have taken particularly to drinking vodka and have left the consumption of
fly-agarics to their wandering neighbors, the Koryaks, for whom they gather
the fly-agarics and trade them very profitably for reindeer.

The usual way to consume fly-agarics is to dry them and then to swallow
them at one gulp, rolled up into a ball, without chewing them; chewing fly-
agarics is considered harmful, since it is said to cause digestive disturbances.

Sometimes these mushrooms are cooked fresh and eaten in soups or

247

EXHIBITS

sauces, since they then taste more like the usual edible mushrooms and have
a weaker effect, so that when the mushrooms are prepared in this way, a
larger amount can be eaten without harmful results. Occasionally, too.
fly-agarics are soaked in berr>- juice, which one may thereafter drink at his
pleasure as a genuine intoxicating wine. Juice squeezed from bilberries (Vflc-
cutiuni idigiuosum) is said to be most suitable for this purpose because it
heightens the intoxicating effect, so that one may expect to achieve a more
potent result with a smaller quantity.

The body’s predisposition or susceptibility to the intoxicating effect of
fly-agarics apparently is not the same at all times, since the same person may
sometimes be ver\’ strongly affected by a single mushroom and at other times
remain completely unaffected after eating twelve to nventy of them. Ordi-
narily, however, one large fly-agaric or two small ones are enough to make
an enjoyable day.

The narcotic effect is also said to be heightened by the drinking of large
quantities of cold water afterwards.

The narcotic effect begins to manifest itself about a half hour after eating,
in a pulling and jerking of the muscles or a so-called tendon jump (although
sometimes these effects appear only after an hour or two); this is gradually
followed by a sense of things swimming before the eyes, dizziness, and sleep.
During this time, people who have eaten a large quantity of mushrooms
often suffer an attack of vomiting. The roUed-up mushrooms previously
swallowed whole are then vomited out in a swollen, large, and gelatinous
form, but even though not a single mushroom remains in the stomach, the
drunkenness and stupor nevertheless continue, and all the symptoms of
fly-agaric eating are, in fact, intensified. Many other persons never vomit,
even after eating copiously of the mushrooms.

The nature of the ecstasy or drunkenness caused by the fly-agaric resembles
the effects of wine and vodka to the extent that it renders unconscious the
persons intoxicated with it and arouses in them feelings that are most-
ly joyful, less often gloomy. The face becomes red, bloated, and full of
blood, and the intoxicated person begins to do and say many things invol-
untarily.

In the milder stages, as I have said, there are tendon jerks, but in the
more advanced stages there are jerky movements of the limbs, and then the
intoxicated persons often appear to be dancing and making the most out an
ish pantomime movements with their hands. Similarly, the hea an nec '
muscles are also in a constantly convulsive state; if a person has eaten mush-
rooms to excess, he goes into genuine convulsions. , , . j

According to their own statement, persons who are slightly intoxicated

248

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

fed extraordinarily light on their feet and arc then exceedingly skillful in

bodilv niovenicnt and physical exercise.

The nerves are highly stimulated, and in this state the slightest eflort ol

will produces yery powerful effects. Consequently, if one wishes to step over
a small stick or a straw, he steps and jumps as though the obstacles were
tree trunks. If a man is ordinarily talkative, his speech nerves are now in
constant activity, and he involuntarily blurts out secrets, tully conscious ol
his actions and aware of his secret but unable to hold his nerves in check. In
this condition a man who is tond of dancing dances and a music-loser sings
incessantly. Others run or walk quite involuntarily, without any intention
of moving, to places where they do not wish to go at all.

The muscles are controlled by an uncoordinated activity of the nerves
themselves, uninfluenced by and unconnected with the higher will-power
of the brain, and thus it has occasionally happened that persons in this stage
of intoxication found themselves driven irresistibly into ditches, streams,
ponds, and the like, seeing the impending danger before their eyes but
unable to avoid certain death except by the assistance of friends who rushed
to their aid. In this intense and stimulated state of the nervous system, these
persons exert muscular efforts of which they would be completely incapable
at other times; for example, they have carried heavy burdens with the greatest
of ease, and eye-witnesses have confirmed to me the fact that a person in a
state of fly-agaric ecstasy carried a 120-pound sack of flour a distance of
10 miles, although at any other time he would scarcely have been able to
lift such a load easily.

But the strangest and most remarkable feature of the fly-agaric is its
effect on the urine. The Koryaks have known since time immemorial that
the urine of a person who has consumed fly-agarics has a stronger narcotic
and intoxicating power than the fly-agaric itself and that this eflect persists
for a long time after consumption. For example, a man may be moderately
drunk on fly-agarics today and by tomorrow may have completely slept off
this moderate intoxication and be completely sober; but if he now drinks
a cup of his own urine, he will become far more intoxicated than he was
from the mushrooms the dav before. It is not at all uncommon, therefore,
that drunkards who have consumed this poisonous mushroom will preserve
their urine as if it were a precious liqueur and will drink it as the occasion
offers.

The intoxicating effect on the urine is found not only in the persons who
have eaten the fly-agaric itself but also in e\evy person who drinks the urine.
Among the Koryaks, therefore, it is quite common for a sober man to lie in
wait for a man intoxicated with mushrooms and, when the latter urinates.

249

EXHIBITS

to catch the urine secretly in a container and in this way to obtain a stimulat-
ing drink even though he has no mushrooms.

Because of this peculiar effect, the Kor>'aks have the advantage of being
able to prolong their ecstasy for several days with a small number of fly-
agarics. Suppose, for e.vample, that two mushrooms were needed on the
first day for an ordinary intoxication; then the urine alone is enough to
maintain the intoxication on the following day. On the third dav the urine
still has narcotic properties, and therefore one drinks some of this and at the
same time swallows some fly-agaric, even if only half a mushroom; this
enables him not only to maintain his intoxication but also to tap off a strong
liquor on the fourth day. By continuing this method it is possible, as can
easily be seen, to maintain the intoxication for a week or longer with five or
six fly-agarics.

Equally remarkable and strange is the extremely subtle and elusive
narcotic substance contained in the fly-agarics, which retains it effectiveness
permanently and can be transmitted to other persons: the effect of the urine
from the eating of one and the same mushroom can be transmitted to a second
person, the urine of this second person affects a third, and similarly, unchang-
ed by the organs of this animal secretion, the effect appears in a fourth and
a fifth person.

For still another remarkable obser\'ation concerning the nature of the
fly-agaric 1 am indebted to Steller, who. in his description of the Kamchatka
region [p. 240] states the following: Tt was related to me by reliable people,
among both the Russian and the Kor)'ak nation - indeed, by a man from the
lower gentry named Kutukov, who has charge of the Cassa reindeer herd -
that reindeer often eat this mushroom, among others (for they have a great
appetite for mushrooms), after which they fall down and thrash about for a
while as if they were drunk and then fall into a deep sleep. When the Koryaks
find a wild reindeer, therefore, they tie its feet until it has slept off the
effects and the mushroom has lost its potenq', and only then do they kill the
reindeer; for if they killed such an animal while it was sleeping or still raving,
ever)'one who ate its flesh would go into a similar frenzy, as if he had actuall)
eaten the fly-agaric himself.'

Although I made great efforts to find out something about the harmful or
possibly deadly effects of the fly-agaric, I could not obtain any satisfactory

information on the subject.

The Kor>’aks greatly prefer fly-agarics to the Russians' vodka and maintain
that after eating fly-agarics a man never suffers from headaches or other ill

effects. , , ,,

It is true that in extremely rare cases (of which no one could recall any

250

1. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

specific cx.imple) persons who consumed an exiraordmanly large quanc.t)
of the mushrooms are said to have died in convulsions, senseless and speech-
less. after six or eight days. However, it is not reported that moderate con-
sumption ever produced any harmful alter-efiects. . |j

If, contrary to expectations, immoderate consumption of fly-agarics should
nevertheless be followed bv pressure on the stomach or some other disturb-
ance, two to three spoonfuls of fat, blubber, butter, or oil are reputed to

be an infallible remedy that can relieve any ill eftects.

There are some people in Kamchatka who drink a glass of bilberry [Vac-
amum ulighiosi.m] juice in which fly-agarics have been soaked whenever they
have a stomach-ache, colic, or other ailment and who regard it as a universal
remedy: however. I was not able to ascertain whether the consumption of
fly-.igaric is followed by constipation or diarrhoea or by an increase or decrease
in the urine.

1 was also unable to obtain any satisfactory answer when I asked whether
the taste or smell of the urine had been changed - every one was probably
ashamed to admit that he had drunk his own urine or somebody else’s.
Nevertheless, it strikes me as not improbable that fly-agarics, like turpentine,
asparagus, and other things, impart a special, possibly quite pleasant, smell
and taste to the urine; by analogy, it would be worth investigating whether
other narcotic substances, such as opium, DigiMlis purpurea, cantharides. etc.

also retain their properties in the urine.

The nature of the fly-agaric, therefore, offers the scientist, physician, and
naturalist a great deal of food for thought : our »i<iteria medicu tnight perhaps
be enriched with one of the most efficacious remedies, and judicious phy-
sicians might find in the fly-agaric the most potent remedy to apply to the
body in cases of paralysis and other diseases of the extremities.

[II]

Erman. Adolph. Reise um die Erde durch Nord-Asien und die beiden
Oceane in denjahren 1828. 1829 und 1830 ausgeftihrt. (A Journey
around the World through Northern Asia and both Oceans in 1828,
1829 and 1830) Berlin. 1833-48. p. 223.

[The author speaks of the fly-agaric among the Kamchadal and Koryak
peoples. - RGw]

My companions had eagerly been gathering fly-agaric (AiminiM muscaria
Esenb.; in Russian, mukbomor, i.e., fly pest) both in the woods through

251

EXHIBITS

which we had ridden in the morning and now at the foot of the Northern
Baidar mountains. Because of its brilliant red color they caught sight of
e\erv one of them from afar and this always caused a sudden halt in our
caravan which at first surprised me. They now confirmed what had already
been told me in Tigilsk about the intoxicating properties of this mushroom
and said that it was not eaten in Sedanka but only gathered for the Koryaks,
who in \\intertime often paid a reindeer for a single dried piece. Mitfc/iomar!
they said, was much rarer in northern Kamchatka and the Koryaks had only
learned about its properties because the meat of reindeer which had eaten it
had an effect that was as intoxicating as the mushroom itself. It was this
experience that had caused them to use it most sparingly and with maximum
advantage and here was why they even collected the urine of persons who
had managed to come by a iHufe/iower. and mixed it with their drink as an
intoxicant that was still very effective.

p. 259. On the same day I tasted for the first time a plant eaten by all
Kamchadals, learning in the days that followed to appreciate it - in addition
to other fine qualities - for the ease with which it could be carried because of
its unusual lightness, and with which it could be used since it required no
preparation. I am referring to a felt-like substance made from the stalks of
the so-called kiprei (Epilobiiim anguslifolium). Several of the stalks are laid on
top of one another and squeezed and beaten in layers two to three inches
w ide so that the sweet sap inside penetrates the green bast and the pieces of
woody cortex: thereafter this turns into firm dark-green pleasant-smelling
strips made up into lengths of four to six feet and the width already men-
tioned. These are eaten raw but always smeared with butter or seal fat.
and, with this addition, I too now found them palatable, easily digestible
and nourishing.

The example of the Russians [from the southern tip of Kamchatka] had
caused the Yelovka natives to try an agricultural experiment during this
same year, for they had planted some potatoes on a plot between their houses.
The plants seemed, however, in a very sad state, owing no doubt to incorrect
cultivation, and on part of the plot they had already been replaced by much
more carefully tended mushrooms. These belonged to Toyon s wife, who
had picked them in the woods in the Spring and transplanted them when
they were tiny, and now she pointed out to me with special pride the big
size of their scarlet caps and their many white spots, which are considered to
presage a powerful effect. She spoke with the most unrestrained enthusiasm

252

1 . THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

of her love for this intoxicant, and 1 noticed she had a glassy look in her eyes
and copper-red cheeks, which no doubt came from excessive indulgence
although I did not see the same symptoms in many other mushroom-eaters

1 met later.

pp. 304-306. Thereafter in one of those open places in the woods we gathered
twenty mushrooms, to the immense joy of the older of my companions who.
as an enthusiastic devotee of this intoxicant, again praised its powers and its
benefits. He atVirmed. from his own experience, the most varied effects of
this mushroom on herbivorous animals: wild reindeer that have eaten some
of them are often .found so stupcKed that they can be tied with ropes and
taken away alive: their meat then intoxicates everyone who eats it. but only
if the reindeer is killed soon after being caught ; and from this it appears that
the communicability of the narcotic substance lasts about as long as it would
have affected the animals' own nerves. He also said that this mushroom intoxi-
cation had a quite different effect from alcoholic drunkenness, since the for-
mer put the Kamchatka natives into a peaceful and gentle (skromno) mood,
and they had seen how differently the Russians were affected by spirits.'

. . . There is no doubt, however, about a ‘marvellous increase in physical
strength,’ which the man front Yelovka praised as still another effect of
mushroom intoxication. ‘In harvesting hay,' he said, ‘1 can do the work of
three men from morning to nightfall without any trouble, if I have eaten a
mushroom.' Of the various ways of using iniifc/iemer he said that the best
was the simplest way. vt^.. drying it. swallowing it raw', and washing it
down with water. On the other hand, the Russians of Klynchevsk, who ac-
cording to him pick whole packhorse loads of this valuable plant, prepare an
extract by decocting it in water, and try to take aw'ay its extremely disgusting
taste by mixing the extract with various berry juices.

p. 312. Sept. 5. Although all w’e could boast of were a few exertions, but no
unusual adventures, our old hunter nevertheless felt himself entitled to be
rewarded with the pleasures of intoxication. Immediately after our arrival he

I. ... As to chc cITccts of muirlKJfnor on the Russians who always ate too many of them (up to ten
mushrooms, whereas 1 never saw a Kamchadal use more than two). Krashcninnikov tells of some
cases in which the most intense excitement ended in the fury of the intoxicated man directed against
himself. According to him, a young Cossack from Bolsheretsk, after eating many mushrooms, was
restrained with difficulty from putting a knife into his abdomen, while another actually killed
himself by scif-castration. {^Vidc [4] -RCw]

253

EXHIBITS

exchanged some of the mushrooms we had gathered for dry ones, of which
he at once swallowed three small pieces (one and one-half mushrooms) and
washed them down with water. When it is fresh, the mukhomor is so sticky
and of such loose consistency that it is hard to swallow without chewing.
This, however, makes the unpleasant taste of the mukhomor so disgusting
that it is considered impossible to cope with any real quantity of them in
this condition.

The strong will that is here displayed in order to obtain pleasant excitation
is even more striking when one obser\-es that this sets in only long after the
narcotic is used and certainly not without troublesome transition. Thus, a
good hour after he had eaten the mushrooms they had shown no effect on
his mood, and he told me then that he would have to lie down quietly and
sleep till the next morning in order to see the most pleasant things, some of
them in dreams w'hile asleep and others after waking next day.

[ 12 ]

Maydell, Baron Gerhard von. Reisen und Forschungen im Jakutski-
schen Gebiet Oscsibiriens in den Jahren 1861-1871. (Journeys and
Investigations in the Jakutskaia Oblast' of Eastern Siberia in 1861-
1871) Published as Vol. 1-2 in Series iv of Beitriige zur Kenntniss
des Russischen Reiches und der angrenzenden Lander Asiens, St.
Petersburg. 1893. Vol. i, pp. 298-300.

At the Paren' I also obtained some dried fly-agaric {Amanita muscaria), which
is very highly prized among the Kor)’aks for its intoxicating effect. It is not
eaten in the fresh state, in which it is believed to be poisonous, but always
hung up to be smoked until it is shriveled and quite dry so that it will keep
well. It is said to occur only among birch trees and hence is confined to a few
localities, among w'hich I heard Penzhinskoye and Markovo mentioned in
particular. When a Koryak consumes the fly-agaric, he chews the dried
mushroom and then drinks it down with water. After a while he becomes
greatly stimulated, converses with people whom he sees although they are
not there at all, tells them with much satisfaction about his great wealth,
and so on. He can also be asked questions by the people present, and he will
sometimes answer them quite sensibly but always with reference to the
things which he imagines and which, in his intoxication, seem real to him.
During the intoxication he is quite capable of walking from place to
w'ithout staggering, but the mushroom seems to produce a peculiar effect

254

1. THE FLY-ACARIC !N SIBERIA

on his opiic nerves which makes him see everything on a greatly enlarged
scale. For this reason it is a common joke among the people to induce sueh
an intoxicated man to walk and then to place some sitiall obstacle, such as a
stick in his wav. He will stop, examine the little stick with a probing eye. aiw
hnallv jump over it with a mighty bound. Another cfliect of the ntushroom
is said to be that the pupils become much enlarged and then contract to a
very small size: this process is said to be repeated several tintes. When the
drunken man has sobered up. he feels no bodily discomfort at all but only
regrets that his beautiful visions have given way to harsh reality: in repl) to
questions he will sav that he has been in pleasant company, that he was the
owner of Hne herds.'and the like. However, the effect of the mushroom seems
to differ from that of opium: the visions arc not of an erotic nature: instead
the mushroom produces only a teeling ot great comfort, together with out-
ward signs of happiness, satisfaction, and well-being. Thus far the use of
the fly-agaric has not been found to produce any harmful results, such as
impaired health or reduced mental powers; this is probably due to the fact
that, in general, the Koryaks are seldom able to indulge their passion for
the mushroom, since it is found only in a few places, and even there only in
small quantities.’

The Chukchis-at least those I have encountered - were completely
unacquainted with this intoxicant: however, it was said in Markovo that
when the people of the town happened to be unable to get brandy, they
would sometimes resort to eating fly-agarics.

1 . 1 was loM of only one faial case ihai resulted from eating fly-agaric but it was explained as having
been due to the fact that the man in question -a Russian - had taken fresh instead of dried mush-
rooms in rather large quantities.

The mushroom has a surprising effect on urine: i.e., it seems as if the intoxicating cfTect of the
narcotic contained in the mushroom passes principally into the urine. It is a well-knotvn fact that
as soon as a Koryak feels that his state of intoxication is beginning to ebb, he drinks his own urine if
he has no more mushrooms, and the elTect is restored. This cannot be repeated, however, for the
urine has no effect a second time. I was told about a man who. while riding with a Kor)’ak. stopped
at a yurt near which a man. another Kory ak, was sitting. He was thoroughly intoxicated and therefore
in a very happy mood. The Koryak who had been riding naturally asked him for a piece of mush-
room. which the latter deeply regretted he could not give because he had none left. However, he
went and urinated, and then gave the product to his guest, who drank it all and now became
intoxicated also. After a little while the host became sober while the guest's intoxication continued,
and when the former complained about not being able to return to his pleasant state, the guest now
gave hint some of his urine, which however no longer had any efl'ect.

255

EXHIBITS

[U]

Ditt.mar. Carl von. (Karl von Ditmar) Reisen und Aufenthalt in
Kamtschatka in den Jahren 1851-1855. (Journey and Sojourn in
Kamchatka in 1851-1855) Published as V^ol. 8 in Series 3 of Bei-
trage 2ur Kennmiss des Russischen Reiches und der angrenzenden
Lander Asiens. St. Petersburg. 1900. Part n. Section i, pp. 98-100.

Finally. I should mention one other plant of this region of meadows and
birch forests which plays a role in the life of the peoples living here. This is
the fly-agaric. musairid, which the local inhabitants often call nmfe/io-

nior. These mushrooms are fiery red with many large white spots; they are
not rare and can be recognized from far away in the rich green of somewhat
shady and damp places. The Kamchadals themselves have little use for the
mushrooms, but they like to gather them in order to sell them in a dried state
to the Korvaks and Chukchis. who buy them eagerly. .Although this mush-
room is a great favourite in the North, it appears not to occur there at all. or at
least to be a great rarity: however, the into.vicating and nerve-stimulating
effect of the mnWiefnor is known far and wide among the Northern peoples,
and they are very fond of it. Both Kort’aks and Chukchis like to carry with
them a small bo.v made of «ti»m in which they cart)’ small bits of

chopped-up dried fly-agaric, so that they may have their favorite intoxicant
always ready to hand. .Another such box contains tobacco, which they enjoy
in three different ways - smoking it, chewing it. and taking it as snuff. On the
other hand, the is only chewed, and the juice is then swallowed.

The mushroom plavs an important role at ever)' celebration, especially
among the shamans, but it is also very frequently enjoyed at other times by
anyone who has become addicted to this pleasure and can no longer get
along without it, just as the alcoholic cannot get along without his alcohol or
the opium-addict without his opium. .Anyone who indulges freely in this
pleasure soon becomes a slave to it and is willing to give anything to enjoy
the intoxication again.

Miffc/iemor-eaters describe the narcosis as most beautiful and splendid. The
most wonderful images, such as they never see in their lives otherwise, pass
before their eyes and lull them into a state of the most intense enjo)menr
Among the numerous persons whom I myself have seen intoxicated in this
way, I cannot remember a single one who was raving or wild. Outu ard y t e
effect was always thoroughly calming -I might almost say, comforting For
the most part the people sit smiling and friendly, mumbling quietly to t em

256

!. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

selves and all their movements are slow and cautious. Walking seems to be
uncomfortable to them, although they are quite capable ot it. They have a
glassy, almost imbecilic look in their eyes, as if they scarcely noticed their
surroundings, and their facial features are somewhat distorted. People gen-
erally claim that the elTect of the mushroom poison becomes more intense
and more beautiful when it has already passed through another organism.
Thus an intoxicated man will often be followed by someone else who wants
to collect his urine, which is supposed to possess this effect to a particularly
high degree. Similarly, the meat of reindeer that have accidentally eaten ol the
mushroom is said to possess the into.xicating effect in a very pleasant form.
The use of the imiWiomer seems to be a very old practice, since all the early
authors, such as Pallas and Kmsheninnikov. tell the same and similar stories.

[Ten years earlier, in 1890. von Dittmar had published his Histarisc/ier
Benc/U, ‘Historical Report’, .iccording to the diary of his tr.wels in Kamchatka,
through the same publishing channels, in St. Petersburg. On pp. 5^4 innl
590 there arc two entries pertinent to our inquiry into the fly-agaric in

Siberia. - rgw]

... 1 learned that shamans are very eager to take in a certain quantity of
.-iHKiniM HiHScanu in order toget themselves into a stupor resembling complete
insanity. The Koryak were complaining about the fact that this drug was not

available at the lime and that, as a rule, it was difficult to obtain in Taigonos.
The mushroom does not grow on the peninsula and has to be brought from
Kamchatka, where there is much of it and it is very effective. From Kamchatka
this precious merchandise has to make its way all around the Penzhinsk Gulf,
from peddler to peddler, and since everybody is wild about it. not much of
it gets here.

... As I approached her [a drum-beating widow who hopes to resuscitate
her dead husband by shaman’s exercises - Translator], 1 immediately noticed
that she was drunk with fly-agaric, a fact that was corroborated by the others.
As a matter of fact, it is quite common here among the Koryak, and especially
among the Chukchi, to produce small, round boxes made of birch bark
containing small dried pieces of fly-agaric. People sniffing tobacco take out
their little boxes, so these people take out theirs containing the mushroom.
They chew the pieces, keeping them in their mouths for a long time without
swallowing. They assert that this practice puts them into a state of bliss
during which they see the most beautiful visions. They sit peacefully, without
ranting and raving, their eyes wide open and staring, as if they no longer
belonged to this world . . .

257

EXHIBITS

[M]

Kennan, George. Tent Life in Siberia and Adventures among the
Koraks and ocher Tribes in Kamtschatka and Northern Asia. New
\ork and London. 1871, pp. 202-204. The journey was made in
1865-1870.

[To one versed in the literature this account by an American a century
ago of his e.xperience among the Koryak sounds disturbingly superficial and
wrong-headed. Why was he astonished by the practice of eating the fly-agaric,
when every prepared traveler in the region had known of it for generations?
Why does he think that the ‘natives’ speak Russian? ‘Muk-a-moor’, as he
writes the word, is Russian, not Kor)’ak. Note his prudish reticence about the
urine-drinking. - row]

...We... were surprised, as we came out into the open air, to see three or
four Koraks shouting and reeling about in an advanced stage of intoxication -
celebrating, 1 suppose, the happy event which had just transpired. [A wed-
ding] I knew that there was not a drop of alcoholic liquor in all Northern
Kamtchatka, nor, so far as I knew, anything from which it could be made,
and it was a myster)’ to me how they had succeeded in becoming so suddenly,
thoroughly, hopelessly, undeniably drunk. Even Ross Browne’s beloved
Washoe, with its ‘howling wilderness’ saloons, could not have turned out
more creditable specimens of intoxicated humanity than those before us.
The exciting agent, whatever it might be. was certainly as quick in its opera-
tion, and as effective in its results, as any ‘tangle-foot’ or ‘bottled-lightning’
known to modern civilization. Upon inquiry we learned to our astonishment
that they had been eating a species of the plant vulgarly known as toadstool.
There is a peculiar fungus of this class in Siberia, known to the natives as
‘muk-a-moor’, and as it possesses active intoxicating properties, it is used
as a stimulant by nearly all the Siberian tribes. Taken in large quantities it is
a violent narcotic poison: but in small doses it produces all the effects of
alcoholic liquor. Its habitual use. however, completely shatters the nervous
system, and its sale by Russian traders to the natives has consequently been
made a penal offence by Russian law. In spite of all prohibitions, the trade is
still secretly carried on, and I have seen twenty dollars worth of furs bought
with a single fungus. The Koraks would gather it for themselves, but it
requires the shelter of timber for its growth, and is not to be found on the
barren steppes over which they wander; so that they are obliged for the most

258

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

part to buy it. at enormous prices, from the Russian traders. It may sound
strangely to American ears, but the invitation which a convivial Korak
extends to his passing friend is not. 'Come in and have a drink . but. Won t
you come in and take toadstool?’ Not a very alluring proposal perhaps to a
civilized toper, but one which has a magical eftect upon a dissipated Korak.
As the supply of these toadstools is by no means equal to the demand.
Korak ingenuity has been greatly exercised in the endeavor to economize the
precious stimulant, and make it go as far as possible. Sometimes, in the
course of human events, it becomes imperatively necessary that a whole-
band shall get drunk together, and they have only one toadstool to do it
with. For a description of the manner in which this band gets drunk collec-
tively and individuallv upon one fungus, and keeps drunk for a week, the
curious reader is referred to Goldsmith s Citizen of the U oWd, Letter 3 ^-
It is but just to say. however, that this horrible practice is almost entirely
confined to the settled Koraks of Penzhinsk Gulf - the lowest, most degraded
portion of the whole tribe. It may prevail to a limited extent among the
wandering natives, but I never heard of more than one such instance outside
of the Penzhinsk Gulf settlements.

[15]

Lansdell. Henry. Through Siberia. London. 1882. \'ol. 11, pp. 644-5.

[Note the English author’s unfamiliarity with the common fly-agaric; also
his prudery. - rgw]

Among the flora, however, of North-Eastern Siberia is a peculiar mush-
room spotted like a leopard, and surmounted with a small hood - the fly-
agaric. which here has the top scarlet, flecked with white points. In other
parts of Russia it is poisonous. Among the Koriaks it is intoxicating, and a
mushroom of this kind sells for three or four reindeer. So powerful is the
fungus that the native who eats it remains drunk for several days, and by a
process too disgusting to be described, half-a-dozen individuals may be
successively intoxicated by the effects of a single mushroom, each in a less
degree than his predecessor.

259

EXHIBITS

Jadrintsev, Nikolai Mikhailovich. Sibirien: geographische, ethnogra-
phische und historische Studien. (Siberia: Geographical, Ethno-
graphic, and Historical Studies) Jena. 1886. p. 337.

[The only reference that the author makes is the following :-rgw]

. . . Furthermore, the natives are passionately addicted to the fly-agaric
(i.e., to a decoction of Amanita muscaria), which replaces liquor and is also
sold to merchants.

[17]

Patkanov, Serafim Keropovich. Die Irtysch-Ostjaken und ihre
Volkspoesie. (The Irtysh Ostyak and their Folk-Poetry) St. Peters-
burg. 1897. p. 121.

[The only reference to mushrooms is in a discussion of shamanism. - rgw]

The shaman must get himself into an exalted state to be able to talk to the
gods. To achieve this he consumes several (cither seven or fourteen or
twenty-one) fly-agarics, which are capable of producing hallucinations.

[18]

Sljunin, Nikolai Vasil'evich. Okhotsko-Kamchatskii krai. Estestven-
noistoricheskoe opisanie. (The Okhotsko-Kamchatskii Kraj. An
Essay in Natural History) St. Petersburg. 1900. In two volumes.

Vol. I, pp. 654-655-

The population dislikes mushrooms and therefore does not gather them.
An exception is the fly-agaric (Amanita muscaria). widely used by the Koryaks
because it produces a peculiar inebriation. They are so fond of this mushroom
that they will pay considerable sums of money (in local terms, hides of foxes
and sables) to obtain it. Exploiting this weakness, some people have set up a
highly profitable commerce. Thus a certain Tykaniev. a Koryak of t e
Olyutorskoye settlement, made a fortune (a herd of rein eer) se mg t ese
mushrooms. Although the law forbids the trade in fly-agarics and other

260

1. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

poisonous herbs and plants, it is almost intpossible to enforce this law under
the local conditions of life and the distances involved. The orders ol tlte
district commander (including the explanation of the noxious effect of the
fly-agaric on the human organism) are completely ignored.

The effect of the fly-agaric is quite peculiar and reminds us of the scenes of
inebriation, delirium, and hallucinations which we have frequently witnessed
in Chinese opium dens. An excellent antidote is a glass of strong vodka or
diluted alcohol. A quarter of an hour after swallowing the vodka, the Koryak
who is totally oblivious of his environment under the effect of the mushroom,

completely regains consciousness. He lantents the disappearance of his world
of dreams, because when inebriated he loses the concept of time and all
objects appear to him greatly magnified (an effect similar to the one produced
by hashish), which is the source of many jokes.

The Koryaks maintain that fresh fly-agarics are higl^lv poisonous and hence
do not eat them. They are first dried for a long time in the sun and over the
fire in the tent. Only then is the mushroom consumed, together with fresh
water to wash it down. The Koryaks claim that continuous consumption of
the mushroom has no ill effect on the person's health. W'e have seen addicts,
however, whose emaciated aspect, yellowish colour of the skin, and uncertain
gait can only be attributed to protracted consumption of the fungus. Its
inebriating efl'ect is of short duration since the poison (an alkaloid) is rapidly
eliminated by the urine which, if drunk, produces an efl'ect similar to that of
the mushroom itself.

Fatal cases are very infrequent and are attributable to the intake of fresh,
non-dried mushrooms.

[19]

Enderli, J. 'Zwei Jahre bei den Tschuktschen und Korjaken.’ (Two
years among the Chukchi and Koryak) Petermanns Geographische
Mitteilungen. Gotha. 1903. pp. 183-184.

[This is one of the most valuable accounts that we have. - rgw]

Very little alcohol is brought up to the North, at least around Gizhiga, but
the Koiyak know how to make intoxicating drinks from various kind of
berries. In addition, however, they have another substance with which they
can produce a narcotic intoxication, vi^.. the fly-agaric. This mushroom is
seldom found in those areas. It is collected by the women in the autumn,
dried, and eaten on ceremonial occasions in the winter.

261

EXHIBITS

At the man’s order, the woman dug into an old leather sack, in which all
sorts of things were heaped one on top of another, and brought out a small
package wrapped in dirty leather, from which she took a few old and dr)-
fly-agarics. She then sat down next to the two men and began chewing the
mushrooms thoroughly. After chewing, she took the mushroom out of
her mouth and rolled it between her hands to the shape of a little sausage.
The reason for this is that the mushroom has a highly unpleasant and nau-
seating taste, so that even a man who intends to eat it always gives it to
someone else to chew and then swallows the little sausage whole, like a pill.
When the mushroom sausage was ready, one of the men immediately
swallowed it greedily by shoving it deep into his throat with his indescribably
filthy fingers, for the Kor)aks never wash in all their lives.

The effects of the poison became evident by the time the men had swal-
lowed the fourth mushroom.’ Their eyes took on a wild look (not a glassy
look, as may be seen in drunken men), with a positively blinding gleam, and
their hands began to tremble nervously. Their movements became awkward
and abrupt, as if the intoxicated men had lost control of their limbs. Both of
them were still fully conscious. After a few minutes a deep lethargy overcame
them, and they began quietly singing monotonous improvised songs whose
content was approximately ‘My name is Kuvar, and I am drunk. I am merry,

I will always eat mushrooms,’ and so on. The song grew more and more
lively and loud, sometimes interrupted by words shouted out at lightning
speed ; the animal-like wild look in the eyes grew stronger, the trembling of
the limbs grew more intense, and the upper body began to move more and
more violently. This condition lasted about ten minutes. All at once the
men -first the Reindeer-Koryak and a little later the other man -were
seized with a fit of frenzy. They suddenly sprang raving from their seats and
began loudly and wildly calling for drums. (Every family owns disk-shaped
drums of reindeer hide, which are used for religious purposes.) The women
immediately brought two drums and handed them to the intoxicated men.
And now there began an indescribable dancing and singing, a deafening
drumming and a wild running about in the yurt, during which the men threw
everything about recklessly, until they were completely exhausted. Suddenly
they collapsed like dead men and promptly fell into a deep sleep, while they
slept, saliva flowed from their mouths and their pulse rate became noticeably

slower.

It is this sleep that provides the greatest enjoyment; the drunken man has
the most beautiful fantastic dreams. These dreams are highly sensuous, and
the sleeping man sees whatever he wants to.

I, Differenc values have also been mentioned for this dose.

262

1. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

After a half hour the two men awakened at almost the same time. The
efiects of the poison had subsided and both men were in possession of their
senses, but their walk was uncertain and convulsive. Soon, however, the
eflects of the poison became apparent again; the drunken men were seized
with a new but weaker fit of frenzy. Then they fell asleep again : they awaken-
ed for a short period to full consciousness, which was again succeeded by
another fu. The attacks continued in this way a few more times, growing
less violent each time. They probably would have stopped entirely alter a
few hours if these intoxicated men had not used another method which

renewed the intensity of the intoxication.

It appears that the poison of the fly-agaric is e.xcreted in the urine, and
this, when a man drinks it. produces the same effects as the fly-agaric itself.

Since fly-agarics are relatively rare in those regions, they are highly prized by
the Korvaks. and they therefore consider it too expensive to waste their
urine, whose effects are entirely similar to those of the mushroom.

1 noticed now that a woman brought the awakened man a small sheet-
metal container, into which the man voided his urine in the presence of
everybody. The container is used exclusively for this purpose, and Koryaks
carrv it with them even when thev travel. The drunken man (or, more

r *

properly, the poisoned man) put the container down next to him; the urine
was still warm and the steam was rising densely in the cold yurt when the
second mushroom-eater, who was just awakening, saw the urine container
near him, seized it without a word, and drank a few large gulps. Soon after
this the first man, the actual ‘owner of the urine.’ followed the other s
example. After a few moments the urine they had drunk began to do its
work, and the symptoms of the intoxication grew more violent, as they had
before. Sleep alternated with attacks of frenzy and moments of complete
calm. The intoxication was intensified each time by drinking urine. The
frenzied dances and the drinking-bouts continued in this way all through
the night, and it was almost evening of the next day before the Koryaks
recovered from their stupor. The remaining urine was carefully preserved
for a short time, to be used again on the next occasion. Even while traveling,
when the Koryak leaves his settlement in a half-drunken condition, he never
squanders his urine; he continues to collect it in the container which he
carries xvith him for the purpose.

This is the greatest enjoyment, the merriest entertainment, that the
Koryak knows, and he waits for it impatiently all year long. It is true that he
likes alcoholic drinks better because of their milder form (this refers only
to 95 % pure alcohol [sic !]. which many people drink without any admixture
of water), for the effects of fly-agaric poisoning, in the form of heart palpita-

EXHIBITS

tions and nausea, often last one or two days, and immoderate consumption
of the mushroom involves the danger of madness or death. Such cases,
however, occur ver}’ rarely.

But the natives believe that the fly-agaric, unlike alcohol, has the power to
reveal the future to the man who consumes it; if, before eating the mush-
room. the man recites over it certain definite formulas stating his wish to
see the future, the wish will come true in his dream.

[20]

Vanderlip, Washington B. In Search of a Siberian Klondike. New

York. 1903. pp. 214-215.

[The author places the following episode in the Koryak village of ‘Kami-
naw’, presumably Kaminov. - row]

A peculiar custom sometimes to be noted among these people [Koryaks]
is that of drinking a kind of liquor made from a large species of mushroom.
The effect is, in some respects, similar to that produced by hashish. At first
the imbiber shakes as with the ague; and presently he begins to rave as if in
delirium. Some jump and dance and sing, while others cry out in agony.
A small hole looks to them like a bottomless pit, and a pool of water as
broad as the sea. These effects are produced only when the beverage is used
to e.vcess; a small quantity has much the same effect as a moderate amount
of liquor. Curiously enough, after recovering from one of these debauches,
they claim that all the antics performed were by command of the mushroom.
The use of it is not unattended by danger, for unless a man is well looked
after he is likely to destroy himself. The Koryaks sometimes take this drug
in order to work themselves to the point of murdering an enemy. Three or
four of the mushrooms is a moderate dose, but when one wants to get the
full effect one takes ten or twelve.

[Vanderlip offered his book to the public as an account of the authors
e-tpcricnces in Siberia, but the excerpt that we have quoted ought by rights
to be relegated to the secondary sources, since the statements in it can be
traced without exception to others, notably Krasheninnikov [4]. with only
minimal changes in wording. Vanderlip could have compiled his paragraph
in the Reading Room of the New York Public Librar}^ - rgw’]

264

1 . THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

JocHtLSON, Waldeniar. (lokhcl son. \ ladimir Ilich) i. The Kor>ak.
Memoir of the American Museum ot Natural History. New \oik.
A publication of the Jesup North Pacihe Expedition. Vol. vi. Part i.
Religion and Myth, New York, 1905- 11. Material Culture and

Social Organization ol the Koryak, 1908. pp. 582-584.

[\ ladiinir Bogoraz and \'ladiinir Jocht-lson were two distinguisiK-d Rus-
sian anthropologists. On the invitation of the American Museum ol Natu-
ral History, the Imperial Academy of Science designated them to collaborate
with the jesup North Pacific Expedition, they to contribute the studies of
the tribes of the Maritime Provinces of Siberia and the extreme tip of Siberia
opposite Alaska. Thev wrote more extensively about the ily-agaric practices
of these tribes than anyone else has done, and with keener discernment. They
were in the field at the turn of the century. \\ e reprint in full what they had
to say about the fly-agaric habit and we bring to the reader’s attention a
number of folk tales in which the tly-agaric figures. We have simplified their
phonetic transcription of native names and words. - row]

The Koryak are most passionate consumers of the poisonous crimson fly-
agaric, even more so than the related Kamchadal and Chukchee, probably
because the fungus is most common in their territory. Some travellers,
as Krasheninnikov and Dittmar, were of the opinion that the fly-agaric was
bought by the Koryak from Kamchatka. Thus, Dittmar says that there is
no fly-agaric on the Taigonos Peninsula.' and that it is brought there from
Kamchatka: while Krasheninnikov* asserts that in general the Koryak have
no fly-agaric, and that they get it from the Kamchadal. My own observations,
however, have convinced me that not only is fly-agaric abundant all over the
Koryak territory, but that the Kor)-ak supply the Chukchee with it. In the
middle of the month of August I saw in the valley of the Varkhalam River,
not far from its mouth, an extensive field dotted with the characteristic crim-
son caps of the fly-agaric, with their white spots. In the villages of the Mari-
time Kory ak, along the whole western coast of Penshina Bay, I knew individ-
uals who were engaged in gathering and drying fly-agaric, and who carried
on a very profitable trade in it. One Koryak from Alutorsk, who dealt in
fly-agaric, is mentioned by Sljunin.^

I. Dittmar. p. 451. [Our ref. [13] p. 256 -rcw]

1 . Krasheninnikov. n, p. 150. [Our ref. [4I p. 237 -row]
3. Stjunin. i, p, 654. [Our ref. (18] p. 260 - row)

EXHIBITS

The Koryak do not eat the fly-agaric fresh. The poison is then more effec-
ti^■e. and kills more speedily. The Kor)-ak say that three fresh fungi suffice to
kill a person. Accordingly, fly-agaric is dried in the sun or over the hearth
after it has been gathered. It is eaten by men only; at least, I never saw a
woman drugged by it.' The method of using it varies. As far as I could see.
in the villages of Penshina Bay, the men, before eating it. first let the women
chew it. and then swallow it. Bogoraz^ says that the Chukchee tear the fungus
into pieces, chew it, and then drink water. Sljunin describes in the same way*
the Koryak method of using fly-agaric. In describing the use of fly-agaric by
the Chukchee and Koryak. Dittmar* says that they chew it. and keep the
quid in their mouths for a long time without swallowing it. Krasheninnikov*
says that the Kamchadal roll the dried fungus up in the form of tube, and
swallow it unchewed, or soak it in a decoction of willow-herb and drink the
tincture.

Like certain other vegetable poisons, as opium and hashish, the alkaloid
of fly-agaric produces intoxication, hallucinations, and delirium. Light forms
of intoxication are accompanied by a certain degree of animation and some
spontaneity of movements. Many shamans, previous to their seances, eat
fly-agaric in order to get into ecstatic states. Once I asked a Reindeer Koryak,
who was reputed to be an excellent singer, to sing into the phonograph.
Several times he attempted, but without success. He evidently grew timid
before the invisible recorder; but after eating two fungi, he began to sing in a
loud voice, gesticulating with his hands. 1 had to support him. lest he fall on
the machine: and when the cjlinder came to an end. I had to tear him away
from the horn, where he remained bending over it for a long time, keeping
up his songs.

Under strong intoxication, the senses become deranged; surrounding
objects appear either very large or very small, hallucinations set in, sponta-
neous movements, and commlsions. So far as I could observe, attacks of
great animation alternate with moments of deep depression. The person
intoxicated by fly-agaric sits quietly rocking from side to side, even taking
part in the conversation with his family. Suddenly his eyes dilate, he begins
to gesticulate convulsively, converses with persons whom he imagines he
sees, sings, and dances. Then an inten al of rest sets in again.

1. Krasheninnikov (n, p. 150) says that the Kamchadal women do not eat fly-agaric, but Ditimar
(p. 106) cites the case of a Koryak woman (a shaman) who was intoxicated by it. [Our ref. [a]
p. i37: [ij] p. 157 -RCw]

2. Bogoraz, The Chukchee, Vol. mi of this scries, p.205. [Our ref. [22] p. 273-RCtt]

3. Sljunin, i, p. 655. [Our ref. [18] p. 261 -rcw]

4. Dictmar, p. 506. [Our ref. [13] p- 256-RGtv*]

5. Krasheninnikov, n, p. 147- [Our ref. [4I pp. 235-236 - rcw]

266

I. THE FLY-AGAKIC IN SIBERIA

However, to keep up the intoxication, additional doses of fungi arc neces-
sarv Finally a deep slumber results, which is followed by headache, sensations
of nausea. ‘and an impulse to repeat the intoxication. It there is a further
supply of fungi, they are eaten. At the beginning ot winter, when the supply
is still large, old men begin their carousals. In Kucl there are two elders ot
the Paren' clans, and during my sojourn in that village I was sometimes unable
to hold conversation with either of them for days at a time. They were either
intoxicated by the fungi or in a bad mood from the after-effects. At the same
season the Reindeer Koryak resort to the coast settlements to purchase and
cat fly-agaric. To regale a guest with fly-agaric is a sign of special regard.
Dr.Sljunin says a small glass of brandy or diluted alcohol serves as a splendid

antidote in cases of fly-agaric poisoning.’

There is reason to think that the effect of fly-agaric would be stronger
were not its alkaloid quickly taken out of the organism with the urine. The
Koryak know this by experience, and the urine of persons intoxicated with
fly-agaric is not wasted. The drunkard hitnself drinks it to prolong his
hallucinations, or he oflers it to others as a treat. According to the Koryak,
the urine of one intoxicated by fly-agaric has an intoxicating eflect like the
fungus, though not to so great a degree. I remember how. in the village
of Paren'. a company of fly-agaric eaters used a can in which California fruit
had been put up, as a beaker, into which the urine was passed, to be drunk
afterwards. I was told of two old men who also drank their own urine when
intoxicated by brandy, and that the intoxication was thus kept up.

From three to ten dried fungi can be eaten without deadly effect. Some
individuals are intoxicated after consuming three. Cases of death rarely occur.
1 was told of a case in which a Koryak swallowed ten mushrooms without
feeling their effect. When he swallowed one more, vomiting set in. and he
died, fn the opinion of the Koryak, the spirits of the fly-agaric had choked
him. They related that these spirits had come out with the matter vomited,
in the shape of worms, and that they vanished underground.

The Koryak were made acquainted with brandy by the Russians and by
American whalers. Despite the prohibition issued by the Russian Government
against the importation of brandy, it often finds its way in winter into the
Koryak villages and camps, being taken there on trading-trips by Russian
merchants. Whalers take it to the coast settlements in summer. Like all
other primitive tribes, the Korj'ak are passionate consumers of brandy, and
dealers often obtain an arctic or red fox in exhange for one wineglassful of
brandy. To my question as to which they preferred, brandy or fly-agaric.

I. Sljunin, i. p. 654. [Our ref. [i&J p. i 6 \ -Rcw]

267

EXHIBITS

many Koryak answered. ‘Fly-agaric.’ Intoxication from the latter is considered
more pleasurable, and the reaction is less painful, than that following brandy
Like fly-agaric, brandy is drunk chiefly by elderly men. Old people do not
give it to the young, that they themselves may not be deprived of the plea-
sure: and ifyoung people or women happen to obtain brandy, they frequently
give it up to the older members of the family. Two herd-owners whom I met
on the Palpal were entirely unacquainted with this drink. Some Koryak in
the coast villages have learned from the Russian Cossacks how to make brandy
of blueberries. They subject the berries to fermentation, and by means of a
pipe distil the liquid from one iron kettle into another, the latter serving as
a refrigerator. The result is a rather strong liquor of such disgusting taste and
odor that the mere attempt to taste it nauseated me. Krasheninnikov' says
that the Cossacks in Kamchatka and. following their example, the Kamchadal.
distilled brandy from ‘sweet grass’ {Heraclemn sphandHiwn).

pp. 120-121. Among the objects believed by the Koryak to be endowed
with particular power is fly-agaric (wa’paq, Agaricus niuscaniis). The method
of gathering and the use made of this poisonous fungus will be described
later on. It may suffice here to point out the mythologic concept of the
Koryak regarding fly-agaric. Once, so the Koryak relate. Big-Raven had
caught a w hale, and could not send it to its home in the sea. He was unable to
lift the grass bag containing travelling-provisions for the whale. Big-Raven
applied to E.xistence to help him. The deity said to him, ‘Go to a level place
near the sea: there thou wilt find white soft stalks with spotted hats. These
arc the spirits wa’paq. Eat some of them, and they will help thee.’ Big-Raven
went. Then the Supreme Being spat upon the earth, and out of his saliva the
agaric appeared. Big-Raven found the fungus, ate of it, and began to feel gay.
He started to dance. The Fly-Agaric said to him. ‘How is it that thou, being
such a strong man, canst not lift the bag?’ -'That is right,’ said Big-Raven.
‘I am a strong man. I shall go and lift the travelling-bag.’ He went, lifted the
bag at once, and sent the whale home. Then the Agaric showed him how the
whale was going out to sea, and how he would return to his comrades. Then
Big-Raven said, ‘Let the Agaric remain on earth, and let my children see
what it will show them.’

The idea of the Koryak, is. that a person drugged with agaric fungi does
what the spirits residing in them (wa’paq) tell him to do. Here I am. lying
here and feeling so sad,’ said old Euwinpet from Paren' to me; but. should I
eat some agaric, I should get up and commence to talk and dance. There is an
old man with white hair. If he should eat some agaric, and if he were then

I. Krasheninnikov, ir, p. 406.

268

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

told by it, "You li.ive just been born," the old man would at once begin to
cry like a new-born baby. Or. if the Agaric should say to a man. "You uill
melt away soon," then the tnan would see his legs, arms, and body melt
awav. and'he would say. "Oh ! why have I eaten of the agaric? Now I am gone I "
Or, should the Agaric say. "Go to The-One-on-High, " the man would go to
The-One-on-High. The latter would put him on the palm ot his hand, and
twist him like a thread, so that his bones would crack, and the entire world
would twirl around. “Oh, 1 am dead!" that man would say. “Why have I
eaten the agaric?” But when he came to. he would eat it again, because
sometimes it is pleasant and cheertul. Besides, the Agaric would tell every
ntan. even if he were not a shaman, what ailed him when he was sick, or
explain a dream to him. or show him the upper world or the underground
world, or foretell what would happen to him."

p. 483. When the reindeer feed exclusively on lichens, they acquire a spe-
cial longing for the urine of human beings. This longing attracts them to
human habitations. Fig. 9 represents a vessel (the name in Koryak signifies
the reindeer’s night-chamber') made of seal-skin, which every herdsman
carries suspended from his belt, and of which, he makes use whenever he
desires to urinate, that he may keep the urine as a means of attraction in
capturing refractor)' reindeer. Quite frequently the reindeer come running
to camp from a far-off pasture to taste of snow saturated with urine, a delicacy
to them. The reindeer have a keen sense of hearing and of smell, but their

sight is rather poor. A man stopping to urinate in the open attracts reindeer
from afar, w hich, follow ing the sense of smell, will run to the urine, hardly
discerning the man, and paying no attention to him. The position of a tnan
standing up in the open while urinating is rather critical when he becomes
the object of attention from reindeer coming down on him from all sides
at full speed.

p. 565. At the present time the use of sulphur or Swedish matches is quite
widespread. Even when obtaining the sacred fire, some Koryak turn the drill
for a short time as a formality only, and the fire is really kindled with a match:
but they cannot always obtain matches, so that the most common means of
obtaining fire is the strike-a-light. Although not much used, the strike-a-light
seems to have been known to the Koryak prior to their encounter with the
Russians, having been introduced by the Tungus, who had received it from
the Amur tribes. Even now, merchants often import from Vladivostok steel
and flint of Chinese origin. Tinder is prepared from a fungus which grows
on the stumps of birch-trees. [Femes /omeHturitis - rgw] The fungus is stripped

269

Fig. 9. Seal-skin vessel for gathering urine impregnated with inebriating virtue
derived from fly-agaric, in use among the Koryak. (After Waldemar Jochelson,
The Koryak, p. 483; Mem.. Amer. Museum of Natural History, 1908)

ashes: and when reviving the fire, they rake it up. put small chips of wood
on the glowing embers, and fan them until they burst into flame. The
Maritime Koryak need fire-tools only on journeys. However, when in posses
sion of matches, they are very fond of striking them to light their lamps or
pipes, even when the fire is burning on the hearth. On the other han , i
the fire goes out entirely, and neither match nor tinder is on hand, the ancient

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

moihod of obtaining fire by means of the drill-bow is resorted to. This,
however, h.ippens very rarely.

[In [he Korvak village where Jochclson was scaying, the ceremonies attend-
ing the home journey of the white whale' were being celebrated. - rgw]

p. 74. The old men ate fly-agaric, and. when the intoxication had passed,
they told whither the Fly-Agaric Men' (Wapa'qalaSiu) had taken them, and
what they had seen. The women and the young people sang and beat the

drum.

[There had been a pestilence and the community were arranging for the
cremation of a child. All kinds of gifts were being sent to be placed on or near
the pyre, some for the dead child and others for the child to take to relatives
who had died in the pestilence. - rgw]

p. 112. Two agaric fungi were sent to one old man who had been very fond
of agaric intoxication.

[In the following extract about the ‘water of life’ we are reminded of the
fly-agaric in one of its manifestations, as a liquid, either derived directly from
the mushroom, or the urine of the reindeer that has imbibed the mushroom,
or human urine. Should we not consider the possibility that this conception,
so widespread in Eurasian and American folklore, had its origin in the fly-
agaric? Here is what Jochelson says: - rgw]

p. 351. We find in American tales some elements that occur in the myths
of the Old World, but they are absent in the Koryak tales recorded here. For
instance, 'the water of life,’ which a hero procures to restore dead bodies to
life, or to revive bones, figures frequently in Indian myths on both sides of
the Rocky Mountains, and is also one of the favorite episodes of the myths
of the Old World.' Another case in point is the cosmogonic talc about the
raven, or some other bird or other animal which dives into the water to
obtain some mud, out of which the earth is created. This tale is popular in
many parts of North America, and is found as well among the Chukchee and
Yukagir.

1. It seems that in the Koryak talcs the blood of the reindeer takes the place of ‘the water of life'.
It muse be noted here that in one Chukchee (ale we find 'bladder with living water* (Bogoraz: Chuk*
chcc Materials, p. xxiv); and in one Yakut talc (Khudyakov. p. 117) 'three bottles with living water*
arc mentioned. As to the Chukchee, Mr. Bogoraz considers the passage as borrowed from the
Russian.

271

EXHIBITS

[Speaking ot the lack of cleanliness among the Korj ak. the author says: -

RGW]

p. 416. The kettles in which the food is cooked are full of reindeer and dog
hair, which fall from the clothes and fill the air of the Kon ak house. The
Koryak kill lice, which are regarded by them as properly belonging to a
healthy man. with their teeth. There is a prevailing belief among them, as
well as among the Yukaghir, that when a man is deserted by lice he will soon
die. They eat also the large lar\ s which develop from the eggs deposited bv
the reindeer-flies in the hair of the reindeer. No matter how putrid food mav
be, the Koryak have no aversion to it. and they will even drink the urine of
persons intoxicated with fly-agaric.

pp. 417-8. People addicted to the use of fly-agaric can be detected by their
appearance. Even when they arc in a normal condition, a twitching of the
face is observ able, and they have a haggard look and an uneven gait.

p. 1 15. In the beginning of things, at the mythological time of the Big Raven,
the transformation of animals and inanimate objects into men was a natural
occurrence. 'At that time, man also possessed the power of transforming
himself. By putting on the skin of an animal, or by taking on the outward
form of an object, he could assume its form. Big Raven and Eme’mqut turned
into ravens by putting on raven coats. Kilu’, the niece of Big Raven, put on a
bear-skin and turned into a bear. Eme’mqut put a dog’s skin on his sister,
and she became a dog. Eme’mqut and his wives put on wide-brimmed
spotted hats resembling the fly-agaric, and turned into those poisonous fungi.'
The belief in the transformation of men into women after putting on a wom-
an’s clothes, and vice versa, is closely related to this group of ideas.

2. The Y’ukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus. Vol. ix of the Jesup
North Pacific Expedition, p. 419*

They [the Yukagir. - rgw] do not eat mushrooms regarding them as
unclean food growing from dogs’ urine. However, according to traditions,
they used to intoxicate themselves with the poisonous fly-agaric, which is
still eaten by the Korjak and Chukchee. The Yukaghir call mushrooms

can-pai, i.e., tree girl.

I. Talc 1 2 .

272

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

BoGOKAZ, \ ladiniir Germanovich. (Bogoras, Waldeniar) The Chuk-
chee. Memoir of the .American Museum ot Natural History. Jesup
North Pacific H.xpedition. Parts i, 2, and 3. New York. 1904-1909-
pp. 205-207.

Intoxicams. - I ly-agaric is the only means of intoxication di.scovered by the
natives of northeastern .Xsia. Its use is more common in the Koryak tribe,
as agaric does not grow outside of the forest border. For the same reason
only the Southern Pacific C;hukchee - e.g.. those around the Anadyr, Big
River, and Opuka River - are supplied with the intoxicating mushroom.
Thev do not compare with the Koryak, however, in their passion tor agaric.

The Russiani/ed natives of the .Anadyr until recently shared in the consump-
tion of this intoxicant, but now they have almost wholly given up its use. The
reason of this change is that they consider the strong intoxication produced
by this stimulant as shameful for a Christian. They also realize that the
consumption of Hy-agaric involves sotne danger. W'ith a person unaccustomed
to its use it may even cause death. The abstinence from agaric is also noticed
among the northern Kamchadal, and to some degree among the Maritime
Koryak of northern Kamchatka, though all of these people gather it assidu-
ously in order to trade it to their less civilized reindeer-breeding neighbors.

Fortunately for the tribes consuming the lly-agaric, it grows only in cer-
tain places, and the supply is often limited. The mushrooms are usually
dried up and strung together in threes, that number being an average dose.
Some of the natives of course require much more to produce any efiect. The
intoxication may be followed by sickness, or the after-effect may be very
slight. When eaten, the mushrooms are torn to small shreds, and these are
chewed piece by piece, and swallowed with a little water. .Among the Koryak
the woman chews the mushroom, and offers the ready quid to her husband
to swallow.

I witnessed a few times the progress of intoxication by means of agaric.
The symptoms are analogous to those produced by opium or hashish. The
intoxication comes on rather suddenly, in about a quarter of an hour after
the consumption of the mushrooms. Usually the person remains awake: but
the natives say that if a person falls asleep immediately after eating mush-
rooms, they will work more effectively, and in a short time he will awaken
more thoroughly under their influence. The into.xication has three stages.
In the first the person feels pleasantly excited. His agility increases, and he

273

EXHIBITS

displays more physical strength than normally. Reindeer-hunters of the
Middle Anadyr told me that before starting in canoes in pursuit of animals,
they would chew agaric because that made them more nimble on the hunt.'
A native fellow-traveller of mine, after taking agaric, would lay aside his
snow-shoes and walk through the deep snow hour after hour by the side of
his dogs for the mere pleasure of exercise, and without any feeling of fatigue.
During this period the agaric-eater sings and dances. He frequently bursts
into loud peals of laughter without any apparent reason. It is a state altogether
of noisy joviality. His face acquires a darker hue and twitches nervously; his
eyes are now contracted, and again almost bursting from their sockets; his
mouth puckers and grins or spreads into a broad smile.

Flashes of the second stage often appear early, shortly after the first traces
of intoxication become visible: indeed, all three stages are frequently inter-
mingled. This is noticeable especially among elderly inveterate agaric-eaters.
During the second stage the intoxicated person hears strange voices bidding
him perform more or less incongruous actions ; he sees the spirits of fly-agaric
and talks to them. He still recognizes surrounding objects, however, and
when talked to is able to answer. All things appear to him increased in size.
For instance, when entering a room and stepping over the door-sill, he will
raise his feet exceedingly high. The handle of a knife seems to him so big that
he wants to grasp it with both hands.

The spirits of fly-agaric have an outward appearance similar to that of the
actual mushrooms, and the agaric-eater feels impelled to imitate them. For
example, 1 saw’ one man suddenly snatch a small narrow bag and pull it
with all his might over his head, trying to break through the bottom. He
was evidently imitating the mushroom bursting forth from the ground,
Another walked around with his neck drawn in. and assured every one that
he had no head. He w’ould bend his knees and move very quickly, swinging
his arms violently about. This was in imitation of the spirits of fly-agaric, who
are supposed to have no necks or legs, but stout cylindrical bodies which move
about swiftly.

The spirits of fly-agaric are fond of playing practical jokes on men under
their influence. They begin with asking for homage either for themselves or
for surrounding objects. - the hills, the river, the moon, etc. Then they show
some of the objects under a delusive aspect. When asked why this strange
change has occurred, the spirits answer that it portends danger to the man s
life unless he makes obeisance in a particular way. To illustrate. An inmxicate
man. while talking to me reasonably enough, suddenly leaped aside, an .
dropping on his knees, exclaimed. ‘Hills, how do you do? Be greeted!’ Then
he stood up, and. looking at the full moon, asked, O Moon! why are )OU

274

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

waning so fast?' He told ntc that the spirits answered. Even so will your life
wane, unless you show the moon your bare buttocks. This he did, and then,
suddenly recovering his senses, began to laugh at his foolish actions.

In the third stage the man is unconscious of his surroundings, but he is
still active, walking or tumbling about on the ground, sometimes raving, and
breaking whatever happens to come into his hands. During this period the
agaric spirits take him through various worlds and show him strange sights
and peoples. Then a heavy slumber ensues, lasting for several hours, during
which it is impossible, to rouse the sleeper. How persistent are the spirits’
commands is shown by the following instance of a man. who, when about to

retire, was ordered to lie down in the midst of his dog-team. Although he
was attacked by the dogs, we could not keep him away from them. He
finally succeeded in staying with the dogs all night.

On awakening, a general weakness and heavy headache ensue, accom-
panied by nausea, often violent vomiting. The drunken state can be renewed
by a single mushroom. In this manner inveterate agaric-eaters keep up their
into.xication day after day.

Drinking the urine of one who has recently eaten fly-agaric produces the
same effect as eating the mushroom. The passion for intoxication becomes
so strong that the people will often resort to this source when agaric is not
available. Apparently without aversion they will even pass this liquor around
in their ordinary tea-cups. The effect is said to be less than from the mush-
rooms themselves.

I have already spoken about the amount of trade in strong liquors carried
on in northeastern Siberia. The Chukchee, as well as all other inhabitants ot
the country, are eager for a chance to drink spirits. In all my journeys through
these countries I met people in only two places who knew nothing about
strong liquors. In one case they were some Maritime Koryak in small villages
on the northern border of the Kamchatka district. These people were far
from the Kamchatka towns and from Gishiginsk trading-settlements. At the
same time, they were so poor that nobody sought to bring liquors to them.
The other case was that of the Kerek of the southern shore of Anadyr Bay.

p. 282. Thus, for instance, the intoxicating mushrooms of the species fly-
agaric are a 'separate tribe’ {yanfa-varat). They are very strong, and when
growing up they lift upon their soft heads the heavy trunks of trees, and
split them in two. A mushroom of this species grows through the heart of a
stone and breaks it into minute fragments. Mushrooms appear to intoxicated
men in strange forms somew’hat related to their real shapes. One, for ex-
ample, will be a man with one hand and one foot; another will have a

275

EXHIBITS

shapeless body. These arc not spirits, but the mushrooms themselves. The
number of them seen depends on the number of mushrooms consumed. If
a man has eaten one mushroom, he will see one mushroom-man; if he has
eaten two or three, he will see a corresponding number of mushroom-men.
They will grasp him under his arms, and lead him through the entire world,
showing him some real things, and deluding him with many unreal appa-
ritions. The paths they follow are very intricate. They delight in visiting the
places where the dead live. These ideas are illustrated in a sketch (Fig. lo)
drawn bv a Chukchee.

Fig. 10. Drawing made bv a Chukchee of the wanderings of 'fly-agaric men'.
(.After Waldemar Bogoraz. The Chukchee, p. 282: Mem., Amer. Museum of

Natural Histors’, Vol. vn. Part 2).

pp. 322-323. Thunder is said to be produced by the passing of the thunder-
bird. Others attribute it to the rattling noise made by girls playing on a
spread sealskin. Rain is the urine of one of the girls. In one tale the lightning
is described as a one-sided man who drags his one-sided sister along by her
foot. She is intoxicated with fly-agaric. The noise caused by her back as it
strikes the floor of heaven is thunder, her urine is rain. Obsidian is said to
be the stone of the thunder, which falls from the sky in round balls, or even
in roughly chipped arrow-heads and lances. Perhaps the idea of stone
arrow-heads falling from the sky, so common in the Old World, is borrowed
from the Tungus or from the Russianized natives.

Intoxicating mushrooms form a ‘separate tribe (ya nfa-va rat). We ha\e
already noted that they are very strong, and that, when coming out of the
earth, they can lift a large tree-trunk on their head, or shatter a rock mto
pieces. They appear to intoxicated men in strange shapes.

276

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

On one sketch (Fig. lo) there are represented the tracks of a man who is
led around by mushrooms. He thinks that he is a reindeer, then he is ‘sub-
merged,’ and after a while he comes out laboring under the same idea. The
path of his tracks connects all men and all beasts seen during the trance.

p. 414. 1 saw a shaman trying to recall to her senses a sick woman who had
fallen into a heavy swoon. To do this he began to beat the drum \\ith the
utmost force. Then he pretended to catch something from the druttt and to
swallow it hurriedly. Immediately afterward he appeared to spit it out into
the hollow of his hand, and then in the quickest possible way pretended to
empty his palm over the head of the patient. .After that, he began to mumble
and gibber over the crown of the patient’s head. In order to prevent the soul
from leaving, he breathed into the hollow of his hand, and then applied his
palm to the breast of the patient. At intervals he pretended to suck out the
source of the suffering from the crown of her head. For this he made sucking
motions w ith his mouth at some distance from her head. Frotn time to time
he made grimaces, and pretended to be choking, evidently for the purpose
of showing that something bad had entered his mouth. At last he spat
violently, and then began again the whole process.

From my own observation I know that a real insect is sometimes used in
treatments of such a kind. This Is brought near to the breast or to the head
of the patient, and then vanishes, deftly abstracted by the shaman, who
pretends that it has entered the body.

[Bogoraz in the following passage gives a classic description of the w hale-
bone device used by the tribesmen of the north, in both Eurasia and .America,
for killing wolves. The Chukchee call it wapaq. which is also their name for
the fly-agaric, presumably because the wolf after swallowing the wapaq jumps
wildly around and then quiets down, c.vhausted. Bogoraz assumes that the
primary meaning of the name is fly-agaric but does not discuss this. In the
absence of further information it seems possible that the natne of the device
was transferred as a figure of speech to the mushroom. The mushroom with
its religious associations is likely to attract to itself under tabu influence
various names and wapaq would have been the current one in the time of
Bogoraz. Here is how he describes the wapaq. - row]

p. 141. Till recent times the well-known spit of whalebone,' identical with
that of the American Eskimo, was used to catch wolves. It consisted of a

I. Its name in Chukchee is wapak, which means literally •fly-agaric’ (an intoxicating mushroom).
The Chukchee and the Koryak are ver>- fond of this mushroom; and when they find it in the woods,
they pick it off just as eagerly as the wolves snatch after the greased whalebone spits. The Chukchee

277

EXHIBITS

slender rod of whalebone, with sharp-pointed ends, folded together several
times, and bound with a thin thread of sinew well saturated with oil. After-
ward it was several times soaked in water and allowed to freeze. The whole
object was then well covered with blubber, tallow, meat, or such like. These
folded spring-spits were often Joined in strings of five or six, and hung on a
bush on the wolf's trail, but so high as to be out of reach of foxes; or they
were laid in a hole in the ice and water was poured over them, so that it
would freeze to a transparent protecting cover strong enough to resist the
attacks of smaller animals. The wolf would break through the ice and swallow
all the spits, which would unfold in the stomach, and, breaking through its
walls, cause the speedy death of the animal. But with only one or two spits
it was able to walk away for a considerable distance, even so far that it
would never be found by the hunter.

[Bogoraz mentions in the foregoing footnote that mice store up the fly-
agaric in their winter holes. He has more to say about this on p. 198 : - rgw]

The roots of Claytonia dciitifolia Willd, Hedisarum otscuruin, PolygtJHHm
pariim. Polygonum polymorphum, Pedicularis sudetica, Potentilla fragiformis,
Oxytropis, various species of Ctirex. and several others, are used by the Chuk-
chee. They are the only vegetable food that is really relished. During the
summer women often go digging roots. They use a digging-pick, which in
former times consisted of a handle with bone point or simply of a sharp-
pointed piece of antler, while at present it has an iron point tied to a wooden
handle. Nests of mice are also robbed. It is considered dangerous, however,
to take all the roots from the nests, because the owner might retaliate by
means of magic. Moreover, the Chukchee believe that some of the roots and
herbs found in the storehouses of mice are poisonous, and are gathered by
the mice partly for the purpose of poisoning the robbers, partly as an in-
to.xicant, like fly-agaric {Agaricus muscariKs). which is used by man.

[On p. 148 Bogoraz quotes in Chukchee a riddle; - rgw] I have a headache.
I am bleeding from my nose. Stop my nose bleeding ! . . . What is it? Answer:
'Fly-agaric.' He explains this riddle with the following note: The eating of
the fly-agaric causes, after the intoxication has passed, a violent headache,
which may be assuaged by a new dose of the same drug.

believe, moreover, that mice, when gathering roots for the winter, bring in some un nown in
icating herbs which they use in their ceremonials. These herbs also serve to protect t eir stores
intruders, because they arc said to act as poison on most other animals, including
arc called by a name derived from that of the intoxicating mushroom. - clhi-wapak ( white agam ;.
- and a similar name is given to the whalebone spit on account of its power of killing the animal

that swallowed it.

278

1. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

[Bogoraz dcvotts considerable space to recording the life of the reindeer
herdsmen and their tribulations. He says that one of their hardships comes
with the mushroom season in the fall, when presumably the herds become
unruly. Another is the insects, two species of which lay their eggs under the
skin of the animals and another in the nostrils. Here is what he says about
the nostril infestation; - Rcw]

.Another fly. of smaller size and darker color (iTdemagena tarandi Slunin).
lays its eggs in the reindeer’s nostrils. The larvae go up to the throat, and
penetrate the cartilage. The next year, when the maggots are full-grown,
they cause a constant cough, which continues until the last one drops to the
ground. The Yukaghir and the Tungus. following the exantple of Yakut
cattle-breeders, try to protect their reindeer from obno.xious insects by a
smudge of smouldering dung, or of a fire covered with green leaves. But
with the wild and large herds of the Chukchee such fires are of little value,
and not without danger. Thus, some five years ago. Tungus herdsmen who
were tending the herd of a rich Chukchee on the Alascya River tried to
surround it with fires, and finally burned the whole pasture, and injured
half of the animals.

Itkonen, T. I. Hcidnische Religion und spacerer Abcrglaube bei den
Finnischen happen. (Heathen Religion and Late Superstitions of the
Finnish Lapps) Memoires de la Societe Finno-Ougrienne lx.xxvii.
Helsinki. 1946. p. 149.

[The author is a well known and reliable Finnish scholar. - rgw]

. .\V hen speaking of sorcerers, reference must be made to the custom of
Siberian shamans of eating fly-agarics to get into an ecstatic stupor; the
Ob-Ugrian sorcerers, for instance, consumed each time three or seven mush-
rooms. It is interesting to note that according to a tradition among the
reindeer Lapps of Inari. Lapp sorcerers used to eat fly-agarics with seven dots.

279

EXHIBITS

[24]

Lehtisalo, T. Entwurf einer Mythologie der Jurak-Samojeden.
(Outline of Yurak Samoycd Mytholog}') Memoires de la Societe
Finno-ougrienne. Vol. liii. Helsinki. 1924.

The forest Yurak magicians also knew the custom of eating fly-agarics.
These were eaten when they were dry and fully grown: the small caplcss
mushrooms were too potent, and it is said that a female magician died from
eating them. Only someone who is familiar with the origin of the fly-agaric
can eat it with fortunate results,* but if in his intoxication he does not see
the mushroom spirits properly, they may kill him, or he may go astray in
the dark. The number of mushrooms eaten is usually two and a half, i.e,
only half of the last mushroom is eaten. The magician sees man-like
creatures appearing before him, as in a dream; they number as many
as the mushrooms he has eaten, and the half-mushroom is represented by
a half-man. They run away quickly, along the path which the sun, after it
has set in the evening, travels in order that it may rise again in the morning,
and the magician follows them. He is able to stay close on their heels only
because the half-spirit runs slowly and keeps looking back as if it were waiting
for its other half. It is dark there, and the magician cannot sec anything.
Along the way the spirits of the fly-agaric tell him what he wants to know,
e.g., the possibilities for curing a sick person. When they come out into the
light again, on the spot where God created the fly-agarics, there is a pole
with seven holes and cords. After the magician ties up the spirits, the intox-
ication leaves him and he awakens. Now he sits down, takes in his hand the
symbol of the Pillar of the World, the four-sided staff with seven slanting
crosses cut into each side at its upper end, and he sings of what he has seen
and heard.

[25]

Dunin-Gorkavich, a. A. Tobol'skij Sever. (The Northern Region
along the Tobol) St. Petersburg. 1904- P- 95 -

[The author is discussing the Ob-Ugrians. -rgw]

The shaman first eats some panga {dried mukhomor [fly-agaric]) and
becomes drunk on it. After this he works his magic, that is to say, he utters
peculiar cries and plays on the tambourine.

280

1 . THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

AKJALAINEN. K. F. Die Religion dcr Jugr.i-Volkcr. (Religion of Ug
Folk) Helsinki. 1927. pp. 178-280.

nan

The use of the fly-agaric, yavx^ as an intoxicant is a wide-spread custom
among the Ugrians and is most firmly established in the southern regions.
The custom was mentioned even in the Berezov area, but with the addition-
al comment that it was rare; in the Obdorsk area, on the other hand, it
is unknown. The significance of the ytiiJX is also confirmed to a certain extent
by the fact that in the songs of the North \'oguls the spirits are described as
consuming it as a delicacy. When the Man who Observes the W'orld is called,
he may be in a state of 'into.xication caused by the one-footed notched-edged
sevenfold [uwx ’ However, this is not said to his shame; on the contrary, it is
supposed to indicate his power and wealth. This intoxicant has been used by
magicians' for their own special purposes; they use it along the Tremyugan,
and even more along the Vasyugan; it is an ordinary stimulant along the
Irtvsh. and it is also used for the same purpose in some places in the Vogul
region. The only edible part of the patJX is the upper part of the cap. stripped
of the stalk and covering; it may be eaten raw, direct from the forest, but in
most cases -and along the Tremyugan almost exclusively - it is eaten after
it has been dried in the sun or in an oven; winter supplies, of course, are
always dried. Even when it is eaten in the ordinary manner, various pre-
cautionary rules must be followed: these rules arose from the relatively
high toxicity of the mushroom, but in later times they took on a religious
character. If the magician eats of the mushroom, this always has <1 cuflic
sigHi^crtHce. which is only natural, since by eating he creates helpers for
himself, or, as the people of Tsingala put it, ‘pavx enters into him’ through
the eating. Along the Irtysh fly-agarics are usually eaten in the evening. The
number of mushrooms or bites eaten is three or seven, and according to Pat-
kanov. even fourteen, twenty-one, or more; these nuntbers should be taken
cum grano satis, since the effect of such a large number of whole mushrooms
can seldom be tolerated even by a person accustomed to eating them.
Sometimes the mushrooms arc spread with butter or fat before eating, but
usually they are eaten simply with bread, and water is drunk to make them
easier to swallow. According to the Vasyugan people, the power of the mush-
room derives from the fact that it was created from the spittle of the God of
Heaven, and the mushroom is so potent that the Devil was unconscious for

281

I. Shamans. - ROW.

EXHIBITS

seven days and nights after eating it. For this reason, men also must not
eat much of it. If anyone consumes too much of it. his teeth become clamped
together, foam comes out of his mouth, his eyes bulge, and he can be saved
only by the forcible administration of milk or salt, for 'pavx wants nothing
to do with’ these substances. The most potent is the ‘king fly-agaric.' which
is small in stature, with a high stalk and only one single white spot in the
center of the cap; ordinaiy. smaller specimens grow in a circle all around it.
These ideas of the \'asyugan people are legendaiy, but we see from their

. maintain a careful resene with regard to the pavx-
When the \’asyugan magician eats the mushroom, he always leaves the
second half of the last mushroom and hides it, for then the pavx cannot use
its full power to harm him. Eating the mushroom results in intoxication,
and in the case of the pavx this includes a compulsion to sing which only a
few can resist. The effect lasts from morning to sundown,’ according to one
informant. The Tremyugan magician eats pavx at any time of the day and
does not hide the other half; instead, he cuts out a piece of the middle of
each mushroom, ‘the crown of the pavx’s head,’ and throws it into the fire
or onto a clean spot in the yard. The man who is intoxicated from eating
fly-agarics sees the pavx ‘dancing’ before his eyes, invisible to others; that is to
say, they move in the direction of the sun and sing a song, which the intoxi-
cated Ost)'ak repeats after them word for word, so that the pavx act as
‘singing-leaders’ for the prophesying magician. At the same time the pavx
tell the magician what he wants to know.’

Drum, zither, and paux are the ‘great’ material means by which the
Ugrian magician attempts to communicate with the spirits and obtain the
information he needs. There are also many other means, both material and
mental, used for uncovering mysteries. One such means which is found
every where and is certainly very ancient is the dream-vision, possibly the
natural forerunner of artificially stimulated ecstasy; another is soothsaying
based on dreams, and this is what soothsaying with the aid of the pavx
essentially amounts to.

pp. 306-8. The ceremonies of the Irtysh Osyaks are very different from
the foregoing in certain respects. When t'?rUt)-xoi is brought into the house
where he is needed (so it was said along the Demyanka), he takes resinous
tree bark and fills the hut with smoke, waving ever>^vhcre in the hut the

I. Concerning a stimulant of his own, the Swedish officer in t7i4 (?) reports. We them 5fl<ir
(tobacco); they smoked it and inhaled the smoke and thereupon fell to the ground quite uncon^ous,
as if they were dead; afienvards they said that Shaitan had tormented them/ However, to judge y

the name used foriobacco. this description most probably refers to the Ost)akSamo)cds [ — Sc up .

282

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

cloth which has been hung up as a sacrifice to Sapka. At his direction home-
made beer is brewed and in the evening the bath is heated for him. Alter the
bath the magician eats three or seven fly-agaric caps on an empty stomach -
for he has fasted all day long - swallowing them either fresh or. in most
cases, after they have been dried in the sun or sometimes in an oven, and
then he lies down. When he has slept for a while, he springs up and begins
to shout and walk to and fro, his whole body trembling with excitement. As
he shouts, he reports what the spirit has revealed to him through his emis-
saries,' which spirit should be oflered a sacrifice, what is to be sacrificed,
which man has spoiled the luck of the hunt, how the luck can be regained,
and so on. After the ‘emissaries' have told everything, they depart and the
magician sinks into a deep sleep, from which he does not awaken until
morning. In the morning the appropriate spirit is entertained with home-

made beer, porridge, and bread at the rear window, i.e.. in the icon corner,
and is given the promise that the desired sacrifice will be made as soon as the
animal designated has been procured.

The procedure is essentially the same in Tsingala: i'.>rfay-X‘yut cats three
dried p.iyx " ith bread, half a mushroom at a time, and then goes to sleep;
after he awakens, he shouts out what has been revealed to him. Before this
proceeding, 'three seven kopeks'* (= three copper two-kopek pieces) are
placed on the table, 'in the way of the p.iyx.' -is ^ sacrifice for Sanko. and while
the magician begins to tell his story, both he and the money are smoked with
pik/iM [spruce bark). This questioning does not take place until evening,
when night is falling. In the same village Schultz personally witnessed a
questioning of the following nature: The magician was an old woman who,
before beginning her magic, placed candles in front of the icons and a loaf of
bread on the table: she made seven indentations in the loaf, naming Astanai
and other Ostvak epic folk heroes. An old man who served as the sacrificer
or priest in the village smoked the old woman, the bread, and all those
present, using spruce bark smoke. The old woman ate three dried fly-
agarics, a bite at a time, taking a swallow of water after each bite. After three
or four minutes she began to hiccup; the hiccuping was following by shout-
ing, and this in turn by a kind of singing. This went on for about half an hour.
The hiccuping and singing gradually died away, and the whole proceeding
ended when the old woman drank water and bowed before the icons. The
others followed her example. The subject of the old woman’s song was not
she herself but ‘the spirit of the fly-agaric.’ - In the Zavodniya yurt there

1. 'Little $piriis' appear in person, while 'great spirits' only send their messengers, about whom
nothing more specihe is known.

2. ‘drei sieben Kopeken.' - new.

283

EXHIBITS

exist today women who undertake such investigations; thev too eat vavx

and then tell their revelations in song after a short sleep, during which thev
visit Sank?.

PP- The procedure tollowed hy the \'as\‘ugan flv-agaric soothsayer

is quite simple, simpler than it for example, in ^^he Irn sh region. Such a
man was asked to give information about the mental disrurbance suffered
by a woman. Towards evening, he ate two and a half pavx ^nd slept for a
little while: alter awakening, he sat down in the comer of his birch-bark
yurt and began to sing, keeping his eyes closed and shaking his bodv to and
Iro. The intoxication did not seem to be ver\' strong, since after he stopped
singing, he was able to speak clearly with the speaators and take snuff into
his nose. He continued singing in this way until morning, narrating the events
of his journey, telling how far the pavx bad brought him. through manv
districts and different countries, how it had led him into a church, and so on. -
In spite of all his effons. however, this time he did not reach the goal of
his journey, ri^.. the place where the intomiation was available. The reason
for this unfonunate conclusion was that ill-behaved people had shown
the hidden half-pjpx to me. and this had angered those yavx that had
been eaten.

.As can be seen from the foregoing, the manipulations of the Vgrian shamans
may be quite different in the various regions, and special features in customs
and ideas are lound particularly in the southern Ostyak regions. Customs
that mav doubtless be regarded as late additions from the Im sh region are
hiithing in fJie hat/i-nvtn, t/ie dej.vsifii'n cf sucrifici gifts, stncte-curing. and llie
e?itcTrjining 0/ t/'ie Sapb. although the latter, e.g.. in Tsingala. is not asked
directly for information at all. The entire questioning of the pa^x- for ex-
ample. is also something that came into use in later times: the X'oguls and
Ostvaks know this to some extent from the Surguts, it has spread to some
extent along the Trem}-ugan. and it has become predominant among the
Invsh Osn aks.

It is not impossible that this custom is a coalescence of the dream-rision
and the earlier intoxication : this is su^ested by the faa that after consuming
the pdvx the magidan alwavs sleeps tor a while: to my mind, this is needed
not for evoking and intensifving the effects of the fly-agaric, but for evoking
dream-visions in order to give information and make prophedes. The re-
presentation of the magidan’s assistants that has become established along
the \'as\'ugan. a representation which is late in its present form, was also apt
to influence the prevailing ideas concerning the magidan s method, contribute
a new nuance to them, and give rise to additional features, e\en though a

2S4

1. TUB iLY-ACAKIC IN SIBKKIA

great deal that is native may essentially be Iniind in the ceremonies, as a

comparison with North Ostyak customs shows.

A method tliat was already used by magicians in early times but was mtt
their only method was magic in l/ie dark, which is still practiced today in
many regions, both among the \ oguls‘ and among the Ostyaks. 1 am inclined
to believe that the Tsingala custom of c]uestioning the in the evening,

w hen night is coming on. is also a remnant ot this. In such cases, the magician
is often tied up with ropes, a custom lor which Noviiskij and .Miiller cite
e.xamples from the West and which is still prevalent along the \ asyugan.

Bi;Rt;.MAN, Sten. Wilkaiic. Baren iind Noinadeii. (\olcanoes, Bears,
and Nomads) Stuttgart, luio. pp. 150-160.

On the da\ after the celebratittn a Koryak visited the Lamut camp, l ie

came with his dog and apparently h.id no other purpose than to sit and

chat for a while. When the loud barking of the dogs announced his arrisal.

we went out of the vurt to welcome him. It was a Korvak named .Akei,

who owned a large herd of reindeer and a yurt in the vicinity, lie was
small and sinew v. his face was leather-colored, and his features were not
unlike those of an .American Indian. I lis nuivements w ere slow and aw kw ard.
He walked to the yurt with a gently rolling gait.

■Privatel , have vou any llv-agarics for me?’ was the first thing he asked
after exchanging greetings. Privatel is the form of address used bv the
Korvaks and Lamms to everyone and means simplv ‘friend.’ 1 le apparently
took me for a trader, for when these men travel to the mountains, they
usually carry llv-agarics with them : the Koryaks and Lamut.s* are passionately
fond of using these as an intoxicant.

1. Munkc^csi mentions ihai in the case orsacrilkes the magic is praciiccvl vluring the Jav in front of
the spirits* food *5 to re ho use or at some other place that is sacres) to a spirit, while in other cases it is
usually practiced ai night in a dark vnri, uhere the lire on the open tireplacc is e\tingui>hed while
the magic is going on.

2 . Bergman alone among oiir sources iiKludes the Lamut among those who use the Hy-agaric. The
Lamut arc closely related linguistically and culturally to the Tungus. - row.

285

EXHIBITS

[28]

Don.ner. Kai. i. Ethnological Notes about the Yenisei-Ostyak (in the
Turukhansk Region) [Yenisei-Ostyak = Ket] Memoires d'c la Societe
Finno-ougrienne. Vol. lxvi. Helsinki. 1933. pp. 81-2.

Havgo is a mushroom, the flybane [= fly-agaric], eaten by the shamans.
Seven such mushrooms are eaten, whereupon human beings become ‘mad’.
Those who are not. or are not going to be, shamans die from eating these
mushrooms. The shamans, specially those of the Ostyak-Samoyed (= Selkup)
J ' were known for consuming flybanes as a means of

into.xication before starting the shamanizing. At present (1912-1914) it is not
so much practised.

[In the preceding c.xtract, note the telltale marks of a folk belief: those who
arc shamans or who are going to be shamans cat the mushrooms with im-
punity, but others die from them. Conner mentions the same belief as
being present in the Selkup culture, a Samoyed group that are neighbors to
the Ket. W'e quote the passage in the third of our c.xtracts from Conner;
vide infra. It seems to have lingered on among the Samoyed and Ket of the
upper Yenisei. - rcw]

2. Bci den Samojeden in Sibirien. (Among the Samoyed in Siberia)
Stuttgart. (Our copy is dated 1926. First published in Swedish
in 1918). p. 1 10.

The performance always takes place in the evening, when darkness is
failing, and may last all night long. When the performance is about to
start, the shaman calls his assistants, who bring out the drum and slowly
warm it at the fire in order to stretch the skin as light as possible. Along the
Ket the shaman makes no preparations of any kind, but in other places he
often cats several fly-agarics in order to go into a trance more easily. These
mushrooms contain a very strong poison, and 1 can say from personal experi-
ence that it is highly intoxicating. The natives often use it to get drunk on
when they have no alcohol.

286

1 . THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

3. L.i Siberie: La \ ie en Sihcric; Ics Temps andens. Translated trom
the Finnish by Leon Froman. Paris, Gallimard. Nouveilc Revue

Fran^aise. 194b. p- 2 . 15 .

Even one who otherwise would find it easy to enter into rapport with
the world of spirits would not enter into ecstasy in a state ot trance indis-
pensable for this purpose without having acquired the habit. Nor must it be
so easy to absorb a sufficient dose of fresh tly-agarics. or preferably dried
specimens, to enter into the necessary state of drunkenness or stupor. Among
the Samoyed-Osiyak of the Yenisei [Selkup], the mushrooms should number
from two to seven, but one savs that he who is not a shaman and who eats
them falls sick and dies, which is probably true for the poison of the mush-
rooms is violent and one could not absorb a strong dose without being used
to it. The absorption of fly-agarics - as of all direct stupefying agents - must
have been especially current among the Santoyed ol the region of Narym.
Nevertheless there are many shamans who leel that they have no need ot
inebriating substances or other similar products to provoke a change of state
permitting them to pass into the other world, where they will meet later
with all the spirits that influence the condition and life of mankind.

[^ 9 ]

Koryak and Kamchadal Tales, taken down by Waldemar Jochclson
in the original languages.

[Among Jochelson’s mss. found after his death there were a number of
tales in the Kamchadal language. Professor Dean S. Worth took them in
hand and has published them in a beautiful edition in 1961. produced by
Mouton in The Hague. Professor Worth has edited them in the Kamchadal
language with literal interlinear translation in English, followed by a smooth
translation. Jochelson also took down many Koryak tales. His mss. in the
original language do not survive, but he turned many of them into English
and published them in his work on the Koryak. The fly-agaric figures in eight
of these tales, four of them among those in the Kamchadal language and four
translated into English from the Koryak, and with the permission of Mouton
&[ Co. w'e reproduce them here.

The only alteration that we have made in the te.vt of these tales is a simplifi-
cation of the spelling of native words, or in some cases the suppression of the
native name where it is irrelevant to the theme of our book. - rgw]

287

EXHIBITS

KAMCHADAL TALES

C2ELKUTQ AND THE AMANITA GIRLS

There li\ed Czelkutq. He wooed Kutq s daughter Sinanewt and worked
for her. He brought in much wood. Czelkutq married Sinanewt. They began
to live. They amused themselves well. Sinanewt gave birth; a son was bom.
Czelkutq set oflf into the woods, where he met the beautiful Amanita girls.
Czelkutq stayed with the girls and forgot his wife. Sinanewt thought of her
husband and waited for him. She thought; 'Where is he, long ago he was
kiUed!’

With them there lived an old aunt of hers, Kutq’s sister, who said: ‘Well,
Sinanewt, stop waiting for your husband ; long ago he stayed with the Amani-
ta; send your son to his father.’

The little boy set off to his father. He began to sing: 'My father is Czelkutq,
my mother is Sinanewt, father has forgotten us.’

Czelkutq heard his son singing and said to the girls: ‘Go and burn him with
burning brands, and tell him that I am no father to him.’

The girls took the burning brands and burned the boy all over, they burned
his little hands all over. ‘It is hot! Mother, they bum me!’ he cried, and back
he went to his mother. She asked: ‘Well, what did your father say?’

‘He said: “I am no father to you;” he ordered the Amanita girls to burn me
with hot brands; he burned my hands all over; it is hot and hurts me. I will
not go to my father again, or they will bum me with hot firebrands.’

The next day his grandmother sent him to his father again, saying: ‘Go
once more, sing again, say "Father, tomorrow all of us will leave, you will
stay in the forest here with the Amanita; afterwards you will surely starve .

The little boy set off to his father and began to sing: ‘Father, tomorrow all
of us will leave together. You will remain in the forest with the Amanita;
afterwards you will surely starve.’

Czelkutq, hearing his son singing, became angry and said: Go, girls, and
beat him thoroughly with a leather strap and burn him with fire; tell him
to stop coming here.’

Thus the girls took firebrands and a leather strap and began to beat him
and burn him; thus they drove him away. The boy cried, and started back
to his mother. He was burned all over when he arrived, but his grandmother
blew at him and made him well. The old woman said: 'Well, Sinanewt. let
us get ready to go, we shall go into the woods.

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I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Thcv began to get ready; they tied up all the animals and took them alb
leaving nothing. They started into the woods. When they arrived, they picked
out a high mountain, climbed up to the top. and poured water all over the
mountain, making a sheet of icc.

Czelkutc] began to go into the woods. He did not kill any animals at all;
.ill the traces had gotten lost. He and the girls began to starve. What could
they eat? Then Czelkutq remembered his wife and son and went home. He
came to his house, but did not find his wife and son. He began to weep:
‘Where did all my people get lost? 1 am starving. Sinanewt, I am hungry.

Where did you and our son go away?’

Ho followed his wife by their traces, and reached that high mountain.
How to get up? The ice is very slippery.’ From below he called up: 'Sinanewt,

pull me up!’

Sinanewt threw down a leather cord and called out: W^cll, Czelkutq, catch

the cord!’

He caught the cord. She began to pull him up to the top of the mountain,
but when he was ready to step onto the top. she cut the cord with a knife.
Czelkutq flew downwards, he fell, he died, he revived, and again he called
out; ‘Sinanewt. pull me up. I am starving!’

‘Why don’t you live with the Amanita? Why don’t you live with the
Amanita? Why do you come to us? You tortured your son. and now you arc
being paid back: it’s you yourself who began that sort of life.'

‘Sinanewt, stop being angry, pull me up. 1 am hungr)' !’

She threw down the cord again, saying; 'Well, catch. I shall pull you up
now.’

Czelkutq caught the cord and she pulled him up. When he got near the
top, she again cut the cord with a knife ; he flew down, he fell, he died, he lay
there, he came to life again, and cried out: ‘Sinanewt, stop being angry!’

‘If I pull you up, will you go on living like that afterwards?’

’No, I won’t. Sinanewt. I shall stop living like that.’

She threw down the cord, he was pulled up, dried out, and became happy ;
he ate, he became satiated. Again they began to live as before, atnusing
themselves. The Amanita dried up and died.

EMEMQUT AND HIS WIFE YELTALNEN

Kutq lived with his wife Miti. They had a girl-child, Y’eltalnen. There was
also an old woman, Kutq's mother, who lived with them. Many suitors came.

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EXHIBITS

but the old woman ate them aU up. letting nobody pass bv. The old woman
was a cannibal. Ememqut heard of the ver>- pretty girl Yeltalnen. He made
ready to go there, and caught a wild reindeer. When he went, he took the
reindeer with him. When he came near, he drove the reindeer on ahead of
him. The old woman ate up the reindeer, but Ememqut passed by without
her noticing him. He came to Kutq and asked: ‘Kutq. where is vour girl?’

Kutq said: ‘\\'e have no girl.’

\eltalnen was in another house. Ememqut began to live with Kutq. He
certainly wanted to get to Yeltalnen. but she did not accept him. Ememqut
thought this over, turned himself into an old woman, and made a violent
snowstorm. He came to Yeltalnen again and began to plead. ‘Let me in.
Yeltalnen, I am suffering from the cold.’

She let him in. Yeltalnen did not recognize Ememqut, but thought he
was really an old woman and said: ‘Old woman, sit down there by the door.’

Ememqut lulled Yeltalnen to sleep. She fell fast asleep and felt nothing.
Ememqut did what was needed and then left. Thus Yeltalnen became
pregnant. Yeltalnen realized she was pregnant and made baby clothes. Miti
came in and said: ‘Well. Yeltalnen, what are vou doing? What are you
thinking about?’

Yeltalnen answered: 'Yes, Mother, I am pregnant. I certainly slept with
nobody. I only let a little old woman in here once during a violent snowstorm.’

Miti said: ‘That must have been Ememqut.’

Yeltalnen gave birth to a very' prett}' child. She said to her mother and
father: ‘VS'ell, tell my suitor that Yeltalnen says, “All right, I accept.’”

Kutq and Miti answered: ‘Many Ememqut if you wish.’

Ememqut married her. He began to live well. Ememqut said: ‘\\’ell, let us
start home.’ They began to get readv. Ememqut went out into the yard and
whistled; three pair of reindeer arrived, and they started home. Yeltalnen’s
friends told her: ‘You are happy now, but later your snot will dangle on your
whip.’

They came home. Many ravens had soiled Ememqut’s house with excre-
ment. Ememqut fixed up the house. He began to arrange a feast and invited
eveiybody. The cossacks came. Cickimdcan came, acting as if he had eaten
Amanita. He said: ‘Yeltalnen, urinate into a scoop of horn, and I shall drink
your urine, since we used to sleep under the same covers.

Yeltalnen said: ‘Cickimdcan, you are lying.'

Ememqut became angry with his wife and abandoned the feast; all the
guests went back home without having feasted. Ememqut lay down all the
time, he stopped getting up altogether; he was angry' because of Cickimdcan s
remarks. He stopped looking at his wife and was angry all the time. Yeltalnen

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I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

said: 'Emcmqut. you are angry with me all the time; I shall go home to m\
father.’

Emcmqut said: 'Well, go ahead.’

Yeltalnen began to cry and went out into the yard. She whistled, and two
pair of reindeer arrived. She went back into the house and said: Well,
good-by. Emeniqut. I am going.’

Ememqut tried to grab his wife by the skirt, but he couldn t hold her.
Then Yeltalnen drove off with the reindeer and disappeared. She began to
weep; a snot was dangling on her whip. She said: ‘My girl-triends were really

telling the truth.’

She came to her father and mother, and began again to live in the other
house.

It grew warm. In the yard the sun was warm. Sinanewt said: ’Ememqut.
it is warm in the yard; 1 shall carr)- you out there.’ Ememqut didn’t want to
go out, but Sinanewt carried him out anyway, together with his bedding.
Ememqut’s whole side had been fouled by lying down. He began to sit there
in the yard, and said: ‘Sinanewt. get my arrows. I shall count them and see
whether any got lost.’

Sinanewt brought him the arrows and Ememqut began to count them. A
piece of grass was dangling on the arrows; he could not untie it. so he cut it
off with a knife and threw it behind him. Then somebody began to cry behind
him. saying: ’I take pity on you, Ememqut; you have cut me loose with a
knife.’

Ememqut looked back and saw a little old spider-woman. The spider-
woman got up and went around Ememqut three times. Then he improved
and got well. He remembered his wife, and started off to see her. He arrived
there, but was not let in. He began to live there. He worked for Kutq three
years, but his wife was not given back to him. Ememqut dug a passage under
the earth to his wife. He went through the passage secretly and slept there
with his wife. Three years went by. and Ememqut’s wife w’as given back to
him. They started home. They came home, and began to live well again.
Again he arranged a feast, and invited all the people. Many guests came.
The bad man Cickimcican came again. Ememqut grabbed him and threw him
somewhere far away. He began to feed the guests. When they stopped eating,
they began to wrestle. Nobody could compete with Ememqut; they all fell.
They stopped WTestling and began to toss each other on a skin. Again nobody
could compete with Ememqut; they all fell down. They stopped playing this
game. They all began to urinate. Ememqut urinated very far; nobody could
compete with him, and he beat them all. Ememqut began to live and to
rejoice.

291

EXHIBITS

KUTQ, MITI, AND THE LITTLE LOUSE

Kutq lived w ith his wife Miti, Their children were Ememqut and Sinanewt.
Ememqut used to go hunting in the woods. He started out to spend the
autumn in the woods. At home, Kutq used to carry in wood. He grew tired,
and once he said: ‘Miti, you give birth to a small louse.’

‘Eh, stop talking nonsense, Kutq!’

Kutq went to get wood, and Miti gave birth to a small louse. She looked
and saw that it w'as very bright, like the sun. Then Miti began to sneeze. She
swaddled the louse and hid it. Kutq came home and said: ‘Ah, I am tired;
take the load of wood, Miti.’

Miti said: ‘Put it up yourself, Kutq: I already gave birth to a louse.’

‘Yes, you gave birth; well, I shall have a look at the child.'

‘It is very ugly.’

‘Well, Miti, I shall see.'

Miti unwrapped the louse. Kutq looked, and fell on his back. He said:
‘Hide the child, Miti, it is too bright.'

Then Miti hid the louse. Kutq said: ‘I shall make another dwelling for the
louse.’

‘Well, make it.’

Kutq began to work and made the dwelling. The louse began to live there

secretly.

Ememqut came home. Nobody told him anything, and he did not know
about the louse. Miti used to bring food to the louse. Ememqut watched
where his mother went with the food. Once Ememqut ate and then went
out to the yard and hid among the piled-up logs. Miti took food to the louse
and opened the door of the dwelling. A light shone out ; then Miti covered up
the entrance and went back into her house. Ememqut found the dwelling.

opened the door, and saw his sister, who shone like the sun. Then Ememqut
fell down and died. Kutq and Miti said: ‘Where did Ememqut go off to?

Miti got up early and looked for Ememqut. She found him, but he had
already died. Miti began to wxep, and Kutq also wept; they grieved for
Ememqut. Kutq said: ‘Miti, let us go and look for pleasure.

They got ready to go. Ememqut was carried into the house and covered
over. Outside they blocked up the whole door with wood. They set out.
When they looked back at the house, they again began to weep. They met
the people called Raven’s Berries, who invited them to stay there to live
with them. Kutq did not want to do this. They went on. and met the storks.

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I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

whoolso asked them to live there with them. Kutq said: 'The heart does not
want to live here.’

Thev went farther on, crossed mountain ridges, and met the Amanita.
There they found pleasure. They stayed there: they were well met. Kutq
began to live there with his family. They were rejoicing. However, when they
remembered Ememqut. then they wept. The sun and the moon said:
Where did Ememqut get lost? He is not to be seen. Maybe he has died some-
where.'

The sun said: 'Moon, let us go look for Ememqut.’

The moon said: 'Well, let us go.’

Thev began to get ready, and set out. They went around the whole universe,
but Ememqut was nowhere to be found. The sun said: 'Well then, let us go
to Kutq’s house.’

They set off to Kutq’s house, but when they got there they found the house
all blocked up with wood. They threw down the wood and went into the
house. They saw that Ememqut was dead. The sun said: 'Moon, let us revive
Ememqut. You go around him beating the drum.’

The moon said: ‘I am not strong: I appear, wax. and wane, without warm-
ing anybody,’ and added: ‘You warm everyone better, sun.’

The sun said: 'You try first.’

Then the moon began to go around Ememqut, beating his drum and
kicking him, but he could not revive him. Again he went around him. beating
the drum and kicking him, but again he did not revive him. A third lime he
went around him beating the drum and kicking him. but Ememqut only
moved his little finger. The moon became tired. Then the sun began to go
around Ememqut beating the drum and kicking him; Ememqut opened
his eyes. The sun went around a second time, beating the drum and kicking
him; Ememqut sat up. The sun went around a third lime beating the drum
and kicking Ememqut; Ememqut then got up and said: 'Yes. I have been
asleep for a long time.’

The sun and the moon said: ‘If we hadn’t come you would have slept
forever.’

The three of them began to make a summer-hut. They made it on three
portable posts. All kinds of animals came and sat down: migratory geese,
swans, cuckoos, and grebes, all came and sat down to sing songs. The only
animals they did not seat were the bears. They set out to Kutq; they sat
down to amuse themselves. The bears stretched up against the house: they
too wanted to sit down. The cuckoo began to laugh at the bears. The sun
said: ‘Cuckoo, stop laughing, or we will throw you out.’

Wherever they passed by the people heard them and came out to see. Old

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EXHIBITS

men and women were carried out in their bedding: for the first time they
heard of such pleasure. They came to Kutq. Kutq and Miti saw that everyone
was having a good time, and began to weep, saying: ‘If only Ememqut were
alive he too would be sitting here enjoying himself!’

Kutq wept again; they all began to climb down from the summer-hut.
There they saw Ememqut. Kutq and Miti began to be very happy. Then the
sun married the louse and the moon married Sinanewt. Ememqut married
the Amanita. All the people began to rejoice and started back to Kutq’s
house. They all became Amanita. They all began to live there and to rejoice.

THE CODFISH, THE R.\MS, AND THE AMANITA

Codfish lived with her son IlaqamtaLxan. The Amanita girls lived there
too, and gathered berries. The rams courted the girls, but the girls did not
wish to marry. Codfish slept all the time. When it rained the Amanita set
out to gather berries. They got soaking wet. When they came back they
went into the codfish’s ear and built a fire to dry themselves. The codfish
woke up and said: ‘Ow, it’s hot, there’s a fire in my ear.’

His mother said: ‘Come here: I shall see what’s the matter.’

She looked, but nothing was burning. ‘You are lying,’ she said.

Again the codfish fell asleep. The girls went out and ran farther away.
Codfish woke up and saw the girls, saying: ‘So. it was you who built a fire
in my ear.’

'Well, we were only drying ourselves out.’

Codfish said: ‘Come here and eat.’

The girls said: ‘We don’t want to eat.’

The girls went home. Again the rams came, and then the girls married
them. They invited the codfish to the wedding. It ate up every thing and be-
came satiated ; then it went home and fell asleep. The rams began to live well
and to rejoice.

KORYAK TALES

LITTLE-BIRD-MAN AND RAVEN-MAN

Raven-Man said once to Little-Bird-Man, Let us go to Creators to serve
for his daughters.' Little-Bird-Man consented, and they started off to go to

294

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Creator. ‘What have you come for?’ he askeJ them. We have come to serve
here,’ they answered.' ‘Well, serve.’ he said. Then he said to Miti. ‘Let Little-
Bird-Man serve at our house, and Raven-Man at sister s. - No. replied Miti.
let Raven-Man serve here, and Little-Bird-Man there.’ Raven-Man and,
Little-Bird-Man began to serve. A violent snowstorm broke out. which lasted
several days. Finally Creator said to the suitors. ’Look here, you. who always
keep outside, stop the storm.’ Raven-Man said. ’Help me get ready for the
journey.’ They cooked all sorts of food for him. He took his bag, went outside,
stole into the dogkennel. and ate all his travelling-provisions. When he had
hnished eating, he returned to the house, and said, ’1 have been unable to stop
the snowstorm.’ Creator said to Little-Bird-Man, ‘Now it is your turn to go
and try to put a stop to the storm. The wonten shall cook supplies for your
journey too.’ Little-Bird-Man replied. ’1 don’t need anything. 1 will go just
as I am.’ He flew away to his sisters. They asked him. What did you come
for?’ l-le answered. 1 am serving at Creator’s for his niece, and he has sent me
to stop the snowstorm.’ Then his older sister knocked him over the head
and stunned him. Little-Bird-Man broke in two. and the real Little-Bird-

Man came out from within. His sisters brought him a kettle of lard and some
shovels, and went with him to the land of the sunrise. There they covered up
all the openings with snow, caulked the cracks with fat, and it stopped
blowing. It cleared up. Little-Bird-Man went home with his sisters, caught
some reindeer, and drove to Creator’s. On his way he ate some fly-.igaric
which his sisters had gathered, and became intoxicated. He arrived at Crea-
tor’s, and noticed that his entire house was covered with snow. He shovelled
off the snow, and shouted to his bride, 'Kilu'. come out! untie my fur cap.’
The people came out of the house to meet him. and saw that it had cleared up.

Soon after that, Raven-Man and Little-Bird-Man married, and on that
occasion ate some fly-agaric. Raven-Man said. ‘Give me more. I am strong.
1 can eat more.’ He ate much agaric, became intoxicated, and fell down on
the ground. At the same time, Creator said, ‘Let us leave our underground
house, and move away from here. The reindeer have eaten all the moss
around here.’

They called Raven-Man. but were unable to wake him. They struck his
head against a stone, and it split, so that his brain fell out. Creator left him
in that condition, saying to a post in the house. ‘When he recovers his senses,
and calls his wife, you answer in her place.’ Thereupon Creator wandered off.

When Raven-Man came to. he cried. ‘Yine'a-ne'ut!’ The Post replied,
‘Here I am.’ -‘Have I become intoxicated with fly-agaric’’ - 'Yes, with fly-
agaric,’ the Post replied. Then he noticed his brain, and asked, ‘Have you made
a pudding for me?’ -‘Yes, I have,’ the Post replied again. Raven-Man took

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EXHIBITS

his br^in and ate it. Then he came to his senses. He felt of his head, and dis-
covered that his skull was split, and that there was no brain in it. ‘Whither
shall I fly now?’ he thought. He flew up to a mound and sat down. ‘My sister
Mound,’ he said, ‘I have come to you. Give me something to eat.’ She replied,
‘I have nothing. All the birds sit here upon me, and they have eaten all the
berries.' - ‘You are always stingy !’ said Raven-Man. ‘I will fly to a place from
which the snow has thawed off.’ He arrived at another place, and said, ‘Sister,
give me some berries to eat.’ - ‘I have nothing,’ that place replied.'Every bird
sits here, and they have eaten everything.’ - ‘You, too, are stingy,’ said
Raven-Man. ‘I will go to the beach.’ He flew down there, and said, ‘Sister,
give me something to eat.’ -‘Eat as much as you please,’ said the Beach. ‘1
have plent}' of seaweed.’

And Raven-Man remained on the seashore. That’s all.

Told by Kuca'nin, a Reindeer Kor)ak woman,
in camp on Chaibuga River, April. 1901.

EMEMQUT AND SUN-MAN’S DAUGHTER

It was at the time when Creator lived. There was no village and no camp
near him. One evening his son Ememqut was returning home. It was getting
dark. Suddenly he noticed sparks coming out of a marmot’s hole. He went into
the hole, and saw Marmot-Woman sitting there. He married her. and took
her home. On the following day he again went hunting, met Sphagnum-
Woman, took her for his wife, and also conducted her home.

Emcmqut’s cousin Ilia' envied his success in having found pretty wives
for himself, and conceived a plan to kill him in order to take away his wives.
Ilia' said to his sister Kilu', ‘Go and call Ememqut. Tell him that I have found
a tall larch-tree with gum. Let him go with me to take out the gum; and
while there, 1 will throw the tree upon him and kill him. She went and
called Ememqut, and he and Ilia' started off to the woods. They began to
pick out the gum. Suddenly Ilia' threw the tree down upon Ememqut and
killed him.

Ilia' ran home, singing and repeating to himself, ‘Now Marmot-Woman
is mine, and Sphagnum-Woman is also mine.’ He came running home, and
said to KiIu', 'Go into Creator’s house and tell Ememqut’s wives, your future

sisters-in-law, to come to me.’

Kilu' came into Creator's underground house, and saw Ememqut lying

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I. THE FLV-AGARiC IN SIBERIA

in bed with his wives, and all of them chewing larch-gum. She returned to
her brother, and said. Hmenuiut is at home alive, and lying with his wives. -
Well.' said Ilia', ‘now I will kill him in another way.’

On the ne.xi day Ilia' sent his sister to Ememqut to tell him that he had
found a bear’s den. Ilia' added. He shall go with me to kill the bear.’ Kilu'
delivered the message to Ememqut. Ememqut came, and went to the
woods with Ilia'. As soon as they reached the den. the bear jumped out,
rushed upon Ememqut, and tore him into small pieces.

Ilia' ran home again, singing and repeating. ’Now Marmot-Woman is
mine, and Sphagnum-Woman is also mine.’ He came running home, and
said to his sister. ‘Go and call your sisters-in-law.’ She went into Creator’s
house, and saw Ememqut sitting at the hearth, and his wives cooking bear-
meat. Kilu' came home, and said to her brother. ’Why, Ememqut is alive at
home, and his wives are cooking bear-meat.’

W ell,’ said Ilia', now I will put an end to him.’ He dug a hole in his
underground house, and made an opening which led to the lower world,
and put a reindeer-skin on top of the hole. Go and call Ememqut to play
cards with me.’ Thus said Ilia' to his sister. Ememqut replied. I am
coming.’ When Kilu' was gone. Ememqut said to his wives. ‘He is likely to
kill me this time, for he has made a hole for me which leads to the lower
world. 1 shall go now. If I do not come back for a long time, go out and look
at my lance which is standing there. If it should be shedding tears, then I ant
no longer among the living. Then tie some whalebone around your bodies,
which will wound him when he lies down to sleep with you.’

Ememqut went away. When he entered llla'’s house, Kilu' said to him,
‘There is a skin spread for you: sit down on it.’ As soon as Emetnqut stcppecl
on the skin, he fell down into the lower world.

Soon his wives went our. and, seeing that tears were running from his
lance, they said, ‘Our husband is dead now.’ Then they tied some whale-
bone around their bodies. After a while. Kilu' came and said to them. ‘Come.
Ilia' is calling you.’ They went. Ilia' said to his sister, ‘Make a bed for us:
we will lie down to sleep.’ Kilu' made the bed, and Ilia' lay down with
Ememqut’s wives. They tried to lie close to Ilia', and pricked and wounded
him all over. After a while, when they went outside, both stepped acciden-
tally upon the skin, and fell down into the lower world.

Having fallen into the lower world. Ememqut found himself in a vast
open country. He walked about, and came upon a dilapidated empty under-
ground house. This was the abode of Sun-Man’s daughter. Her name was
Mould-Woman. Sun-Man covered her with a coating of mould, and let her
down into the lower world, that the people on earth might not be tempted

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EXHIBITS

by her dazzling beauty. Ememqut stopped near the house, and began to cry.
Suddenly he heard Mould-Woman s voice behind him, saying, ‘You are such
a nice-looking young man, why do you cry?’ Ememqut answered, ‘I thought
that I was all alone here. Now, since I have seen you, I feel better. Let us
live together. I will take you for my wife.’ Ememqut married her, and they
settled down to live together.

When Ememqut’s wives fell down into the lower world, they also found
themselves in a vast open country. They wandered about, and soon fell in
with Mould-Woman. They said to her, ‘We are Ememqut’s wives.’ She
replied, ‘So am I.’ -‘Well, then don’t tell your husband that we are here.
You are bad-looking: and when he finds out that we are here, he will desert
you and come to look for us.’ Mould-Woman returned home. After she had
met the two women, she used to go out to visit them; and Ememqut noticed
her frequent absence. He asked her, ‘Is there some one near our house?’ -
'No, there is no one there,’ she replied.

Once when she went out. Ememqut followed her stealthily. She sang
as she went. ‘My husband is a valiant man: he kills all the whales; he kills
all the reindeer!’ and Ememqut walked behind her, and laughed. She heard
his laughter, turned around, but there was no one to be seen, for Ememqut
had suddenly turned into a reindeer-hair. Then she said to her buttocks,
‘Buttocks, why do you laugh?* She went on singing. Ememqut again laughed
behind her. She looked back again, but Ememqut had turned into a little
bush.

Thus she reached the place where Ememqui’s former wives were. Emem-
qut suddenly jumped out in front of her. She was .so much frightened that
she fell down dead. Then the coating that covered her cracked, broke in two,
and the real handsome and brilliant daughter of Sun-Man appeared from it.
Ememqut took all his three wives and settled down.

Once Ememqut said to his wives, 'The Fly-Agaric-Men (Wapa'qala'^nu)
are getting ready to wander off from here into our country: let us move with
them.’ His wives prepared for the journey, and made themselves pretty round
hats with broad brims and red and white spots on them, in order to make
themselves look like agaric fungi. Then they started, and the Fly-Agaric
people led them out into their country, not far from Creators underground

house.

Ilia and Kilu' went to gather agaric fungi. Suddenly Ememqut and his
wives jumped out from among the fungi. Then they took Ilia and Kilu home.
Ememqut put them upon the Apa'pel.' on which they stuck fast. Ememqut

I. Apa'pel (from A'pa. 'grandfaiher' or 'father'(Kamcnskoye]) U the name given to sacred rocks or
hills.

298

I. THE FLY-AGARiC IN SIBERIA

said to his wives. 'Boil some meat in the large kettle, and scald Ilia and Kilu
with the hot soup, in the morning pour out over their heads the contents
of the chamber-vessels. Put hot stone-pine-wood ashes from the hearth also
on their heads.’

They did as they had been told. Finally Ememqut’s aunt Hanna said
to him. ‘You have punished them enough; now let them ofl.’ Ememqut let

them off, and they lived in peace again.

Ememqut took his wife to Sun-Man’s house, then he came back with
Sun-Man’s son. who married Yine'a-ne'ut. Thus they lived. That s all.

Told by Kucanin, a Reindeer Kor)ak woman,
in camp on Chaibuga River. April. 1901.

tMEl.MQUT .AND WHITE- WH.ALE-WOM.AN

It was at the time when Big-Raven lived. A small spider was his sister, and
her name was Ami'llu. Pievu'ein wished to marry her. At that time Big-
Raven became verv ill. and was unable to leave his bed. ’Pievu'ein,’ he said,
‘you are my brother-in-law-to-be. Do something for me. go in search of my
illness.’ Pievu'ein beat his drum, found the illness, and said to Big-Raven,
’Take your team to-morrow and go to the seashore.’ In the morning Big-Raven
started with his team of dogs. After a while he was able to sit erect upon the
sledge; then he tried to stand up; and soon he was able to run along, and
direct his dogs. At the mouth of the river he saw a water-hole, and in that
hole he found a White-Whale woman. Miti bv name, whom he took for his
wife. He carried her home. In due time she gave birth to Ememqut, who
soon grew to be a man, and also took a White-Whale woman for his wife.
Then Ememqut went for a walk, and found there Withered-Grass-Woman
whom he also took for his wife. After that he brought home Fire-Woman,
and then Kincesa'ti-na'wut.

These four women lived together without quarrelling, until finally Emem-
qut found Daw'n-Woman. She began to quarrel with all the others. The
White-Whale woman said, T am his first wife. I am the oldest woman. I will
go away.’ Big-Raven’s people sat up for several nights watching, to prevent
her leaving the house. At last Big-Raven’s lids dropped, and he said. ’I want
to sleep.’

Then she ran away. She reached a lake, and there her heart was swallowed
by a seal. She transformed herself into a man. and married a woman of

299

EXHIBITS

the Fly-Agaric people. Emcmqut went in search of her. While on his way

he found a brook from which he wanted to take a drink of water. He smelled

smoke coming up from beneath. He looked down, and saw a house on the

bottom. His aunt Ami'ilu, and her servant Kihi'Hu. were sitting side by side

in the house. While he was drinking from the brook, his tears fell into the

water, and dropped right through into his aunt’s house, moistening the
people below.

Oh! they said, it is raining.’ They looked upward, and saw the man
drinking. ‘Oh I’ they said, 'there is a guest.’ Then Kihi'llu said, ‘Shut your eyes,
and come down.’ He closed his eyes, and immediately found a ladder by
w hich he could descend. Give him food, said Ami'IIu. The servant picked up
a tiny minnow from the floor, in the comer, all split and dried. She brought
also the shell of a nut of the stone pine and a minnow’s bladder not larger than
a finger-nail. Out of the latter she poured some oil into the nutshell, and put
it before Ememqut with the dried fish. ‘Shut your eyes, and fall to.’ He
thought, 'This is not enough for a meal;’ but he obeyed, and with the first
movement dipped his hand into the fish-oil, arm and all, up to the elbow.
He opened his eyes, and a big dried king-salmon lay before him, by the side
of the oil-bowl. He ate of the fish, seasoning it with oil. Then his aunt said
Thy wife is on the lake, and her heart has been swallowed by a seal. She has
turned into a man and wants to marry a woman of the Fly-Agaric people.’
He went to the lake and killed the seal. Then he took out his wife’s heart,
and entered the house of the Fly-Agaric people. An old woman lived in the
house. He put the heart on the table, and hid himself in the house. His wife,
who had assumed the form of a man, lived in that house; and in a short time
she came in from the woods, and said. ‘1 am hungry.’ - 'There is a seal’s heart
on the table.’ said the old woman. ‘Have it for your meal.’ She ate the heart,
and immediately she remembered her husband. He came out of his hiding-
place. They went home, and lived there. That’s all.

Told in the village of Palla'n.

RAVEN AND WOLF

Raven said to his w ife, ‘I want to go coasting. Give me a sled ! She gave him
a salveline. He refused to take it, and said. ‘It is too soft; it will break into
pieces.’ Then she gave him a seal. He rejected it also, saying, ‘It is too round:
it will roll away.’ Then she gave him an old dog-skin. On this he coasted
down hill. A Wolf passed by, and said, ‘Let me. too. coast down hill.’ - ‘How

300

1. THE FLY-AGAIUC IN SIBERIA

Gin you? You have no sled: you will fall into the water. - Oh, no! My legs
are long: 1 will brace them against the stones.’ Wolf coasted down the hill,
fell into the water, and cried. ’Help me out of this! I will give you a herd of
water-bugs !’ - 1 do not want it !’ - Help me out. and 1 will give you a herd
of mice! - 1 do not want it!’ -‘Help me out. and 1 will give you my sister,
the one with resplendent (jnetal) ear-rings!’ Then Raven helped him out.
Wolf said. ‘Fare thee well ! 1 am an inlander. 1 will go inland, far into the coun-
(j-y Where are you going?’ — T belong to the coast. 1 will stay here, close to
the seashore.’ Wolf went his way. Raven transformed himself into a reindeer-
carcass, and lay down across Wolf’s path. Wolf ate of it. Then Raven revived
within his belly, and cried. ‘Qu !’ Wolf started to run. Raven tore out his heart,
and dashed it against the ground. Wolf died. Raven dragged the body to his
house, and s.iid to Miti. 1 have killed a wolf! Dance before the carcass!’
Miti began to dance, and to sing, ’Ha'ke. ha'ke. ka ha'ke! Huk, huk! My
husband killed one with a long tail!’ Wolfs brothers followed the trail; but
Raven dropped on the trail a couple of whalebone mushrooms.* They swal-
lowed them, and were killed. Raven’s people dragged them into the sleeping-
room of Raven’s daughters. Yin'ia-ne'whui and Cann a'y-na'wut, pretending
that these were the girls’ bridegrooms. The oldest of Wolfs brothers, whose
name was Long-Distance-between-Ears (literally ‘large-(between-the]-ears-
interval ), followed Raven’s trail. Again Raven dropped a couple of whalebone
mushrooms. Wolf, however, did not swallow them, but took them to
Raven’s house. ‘What are these?’ he asked Raven. ’These are my children’s
toys.’ - ‘.And where are my brothers? Their trail seems to lead here.’ - ‘No,
they did not come here.’ Wolf and his hosts went to sleep. In the night-time
Wolf stole into the girls’ sleeping-room, wakened his dead brothers, and
they led the girls away.

Next morning Ememqut said. ‘Now I will at least steal the Wolves’
sister.’ He asked The-Master-on-High to let down for him the ancestral old
woman. Then he killed the old woman, skinned her, put on the skin, and sat
down on the snow, weeping, and his teeth chattering with the cold. The
Wolf people passed by. ‘What are you weeping for?’ -’My children lost me
in the snow-storm, and now I am freezing to death.’ They took her along and
put her into the sleeping-room of Wolf’s sister. ‘Ho! make her warm!’ But
in the morning the girl was with child. That’s all.

Told in the viU-ige of Opu'ka.

I. A well-known concrivancc» made of a slender spii of whalebone bent around, lied with sinew,
and (hen covered with hard, frozen (allow. When swallowed by a wolf, the tallow melts, ihc sinew
string gets loosened, and the sharp ends of the spit break through the walls of the stomach.

301

EXHIBITS

[ 30 ]

\ OGUL Hymns and Heroic Songs. Antal Reguly and Bernat Munkacsi
\^ogul Nepkoltesi GyQjtemeny. (An Anthology of Vogul Folklore)
\^oI. I. Regek es Enekek a Vilag Teremteserdl. (Sagas and Songs
about the Creation of the World) Published in fascicles from 1892
to 1902. Vol. ir. Istenek H6si Enekei. Regei es Idezo Igei. (Heroic
Songs. Sagas, and Invocative Spells of Gods) 1892. Budapest.

[There survives a substantial corpus of texts in Vogul and Ostyak taken
down by Antal Reguly and Bernat Munkacsi from native singers. Reguly,
a man of remarkable character, was working among the Vogul in 1843-1846,
and he died prematurely in that decade without having published the Vogul
texts that he had recorded. In 1888-1889 Munkacsi, with Reguly’s notes,
visited the Vogul country and, seeking out the same singers or their suc-
cessors, had them repeat the same songs. With the lapse of time there were
naturally variations. In the two volumes before us Munkacsi published
Reguly’s texts, his own texts, and translations of his own texts into Magj'ar.
He also brought out volumes of textual exegesis. Hungarian scholars merit
our gratitude for having preserved these texts for posterity and annotated
them, publishing a large part of them.

[In these native texts there is a category that scholars call in German Flie-
genpil^lietier, 'fly-agaric-songs’, songs composed under the influence of the
fly-agaric. I have unfortunately not had an opportunity to explore these
songs, which lie hidden behind linguistic barriers for the English-speaking
world. Apart from their general interest for the world of scholarship, they
may well contain important treasures for the ethno-mycologist; and if the
thesis of this book turns out to be right, it will become imperative that the
West gain access to this store-house of fly-agaric poems. After all, of the
Siberian peoples who knew the fly-agaric, the cult among the Vogul in
recent centuries was the strongest: it pervaded their religious life, their
vocabulary, their songs. The sanctions for the abuse of the fly-agaric still held
the people in thrall into this century: anyone not a shaman who ate the
fly-agaric did so at peril of death.

[In May 1967 I spent three days in Budapest with Dr. Jdnos Gulya, of the
Linguistic Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the outstanding
Vogul scholar. With the help of Tamas Radvanyi. university instructor in
English, we concentrated our attention on passages from one of the three

302

1. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Heroic Songs that Munkacsi had discussed in his paper on mushroom ine-
briation. {Vide [32]) This song is of particular interest for the light it sheds on
the question of the bellicosity of the man under fly-agaric inebriation. Our
Hero, the Two-Belted One. has eaten three sun-dried fly-agarics. News comes
that the Mocking-bird Army from the north is invading the country and
our Hero is desperately needed to lead the fight against the invaders. But he
is in a fly-agaric stupor and sends the messengers to his younger brothers.
Later they return and implore him to throw otitis stupor and come and fight.
This he does: he sallies forth and slays the enemy right and left. The Song
exists in two recensions, Rcguly’s and Munkacsi's: the meaning of both is the
same. Here is the English translation in prose of Munkacsi’s recension of the
Song (Vol. I. pp. 113. 1 15. 117) ‘■Js we worked it out in Budapest. - rgw]

The men keep going on. Whether for a long time or a short time, they keep
going on. To their fortress Jakh-tumen they returned, they got home. Their
mother, a woman of the Kami [river], sets up a kettle [for brewing beer) so big
that it could not be used up by the whole town. For three nights and three
days people keep drinking. The ecstasy of the ecstatic would not come to the
eldest man, the inebriation of the inebriated one would not come. The
Sovereign of the Lake to his daughter, to his wife, goes home, comes up to
them, says, 'The inebriation of the inebriated man has not come to me ; listen,
woman, go out. fetch me in my three sun-dried fly-agarics!’ She answers,
■perhaps in your folly you wish to drink the blood of your paternal line,
perhaps in your folly you wish to drink the blood of your maternal line!’

He says, 'Why have you vexed me. the Two-Belted One. so long as 1 was
calm? Do 1 ask you whether I wish to drink the blood of my paternal line?

I do not ask you, Woman, nosv fetch me in my three sun-dried fly-agarics!’

She throws them before him. He. putting them into his mouth with the ten
bear-teeth, chews them, and the ecstasy of the ecstatic man comes upon him.

The big larch-wood door 1$ kicked open. ‘Oh, Uncle, don't carouse with the
drunkenness of the drunken man ! From northern regions the mocking-bird
army with the red rump has flown here and they have all occupied your
seven silver-headed posts that you yourself set up in the age of your increasing
manhood [childhood]*. T have not strength enough, because of my inebriation
[heat] of the inebriated [heated] man. Carry the news to the two younger
sons of my father!'.

The big larch door is again opened, ‘Oh, Uncle, don't carouse with the
drunkenness of the drunken man! From northern regions the mocking-bird

303

EXHIBITS

army with red rump has flown here and they have all occupied, surrounded,
your seven silver-headed posts! ‘The man says, 'Bring nie my armour . ,

[The Hero then goes forth and wreaks havoc on the enemy. . . . The reader
will have noticed that the Hero has asked for his three sun-dried fly-agarics.
When he is urged to leave off his ‘carousing with the drunkeness of the drunk-
en man’, in the Vogul original the three operative words are all derivatives
from pa :yx. ‘fly-agaric’. Dr. Gulya informs me that the Vogul no longer think
of the fly-agaric when they use these words: the root gives them their every-
day word for inebriation and its source is not present in their minds, One
can become ‘bemushroomed’ on alcohol. - rgw]

304

B. The Linguistic Aspect

Preliminary Note

In this section we do not translate our authors. Wc paraphrase them, elimin-
ating passages where they quote their predecessors, simplifying (sometimes
radicallv) their phonetic representation ot the original words, and standard-
ising their various systems. Wc have reduced the number of dialectal ditler-
ences or eliminated them. So far as we know, we have included e\ ery philolo-
gist \shu has dealt with the poi; cluster. Linguists who interest themselves in
the problems that the cluster raises will wish to consult the original sources.

The special characters that we use arc:

I *

‘shwa'. pronounced like the vowel in but .

an open o. pronounced like the vowel in aw l .

a nasal: thus we write ‘sioer’ for ‘singer’ but ’finger' = ‘finger’.

a dark’ I as in American English, rather than the French /.
the Greek chi is pronounced as the c/i in Loch Lomond,
as in Spanish; cf. ity in ‘canyon’.

glottal stop: as the word ‘bottle’ is pronounced by Scots, — I’ot'i.
the sound of the vowel in ‘let’.

A vowel long in quantity is indicated by the colon that follows it.

One of our linguistic contributors, Artturi Kannisto, contributes impor-
tant, even sensational, ethno-mycological data. His information is dependable,
and he dug out the fact that the N’oguls of the Sosva and the upper Lozva
use mushrooms other than the fly-agaric for shamanistic ends. In the valley
of the Pelvmka it is not clear whether the se.vual distinction betsvecn male
and female corresponds to different species of mushrooms or to some
conventional distinction in the specimens of A. innscrtritJ. Kannisto gathered
his information in the first decade of this century, though it saw the light of
day only in 1958. Even now it may not be too late for Russian mycologists to
learn the precise species that the Vogu! shamans were utilizing in Kannisto’s
day. It is to be hoped that they will not let these clues go unexplored.

Independently of Kannisto. I have received confirmation from Ivan A.
Lopatin, the authority on Siberian cultures, that mushroom species other
than the fly-agaric are used for their psychic effects. His personal communica-
tions to me were dated Januar)' 28, 1963, and July 19, 1966.

In these pages ‘the Chukotka’ will occasionally be found as a convenient
geographical term. It is used in the Soviet Union to embrace all lands of the
Chukchi, Koryak, Kamchadal, and Yukagir, in the Far Northeast of Siberia.

305

EXHIBITS

[31]

Boas, Franz. Handbook of American Indian Languages. Part 2.
Washington, Government Printing Office. 1922.

On p. 693 Boas arrives at the stem pov as meaning ‘mushroom' in the
Chukchi, Koryak, and Kamchadal languages. There is a duplication of the
syllable in those languages, povpop and povpo, etc., and this is discussed on
p. 688, where however the meaning of the word receives a specific sense: the
fly-agaric. Boas gathered his data at the turn of the century.

[n]

Munkacsi, Bernat. 'Pilz' und ‘Rausch’. (‘Mushroom’ and ‘Intoxica-
tion’) Kcleti szemle. (Oriental Review) Vol. viii. Budapest. 1907.
pp. 343-344-

[This paper by Munkacsi was the first of a number that discuss the pavx
cluster of words in some of the Altaic languages. We call attention to a sen-
tence in it that we print in italic. This sentence seems to give justification
for the Scandinavian belief that the fly-agaric can incite furious behaviour -
berserk-raging - in the eater, and as we were dealing with a traditional Heroic
Song issuing from the very entrails of the Vogul culture, rather than with the
questionable observations of foreign travelers, it was vital to determine the
facts. This led me to Budapest in the spring of 1967, where I worked out a
translation from Vogul into English with the help of Dr. Janos Gulya, which
we give in [30I. As the reader will perceive, the sense of the poem is utterly
different from Munkacsi’s one-sentence synopsis of it : in a stupor from three
sun-dried agarics, our Hero is unable to respond to the call to arms. But time
passes and the urgency grows, and when the messengers press their appeal
to throw off his stupor he finally calls for his arms. The distinguished Magyar
scholar had certainly never heard of the debate in Scandinavia and wrote out
his summary without regard to it: even today it seems to be unknown to
Altaic specialists in Hungary. The poem exists in two recensions, Regul) s
and Munkacsi’s, but the sense of both is identical. - rgw]

In Vogul the fly-agaric (Amanita muscaria) is called in the northwest dialect
pa:vx, and in the Middle Lozva West dialect pa;t;k. This word is probably
identical with the North Ostyak povx. 'mushroom, fly-agaric, the Irtysh

306

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Ostyak pa-.vx^ P^VX- ‘fly-agaric’; the Yugan Ostyak pavgih ‘fly-agaric : the
Mordvinian pavga, fniygo. ‘mushroom’; the Chcremis pcvgo. panga. mush-
room’. In North \’ogul the word pavx also means intoxication . drunken-
ness': whence pa.ijxay drunken man’. In the Lozva p<i:yxf'. p.i.yx^M./i,
and in the Pelymka pa.-yk’li mean ’he is drunk, intoxicated (jolpii;yxl«^^*
he has gotten drunk' ; p.i;yxii»i X.’if'.L Lozva, paryk^/em^-^ir. ’a drunken man').

The connection between these similarly pronounced words can be explain-
ed by the fact that among the \'oguls and Ostyaks in earlier times the
fly.agaric played the same role as brandy plays today. As Patkano\ reports
('A type of Ostyak Epic Hero.’ pp. 5. 39 : Irtysh Ostyaks i: 121). it is said that
singer of heroic songs or a shaman would, in order to bring himself to a
state of exaltation, consume 7. M- or even 21 fly-agarics, which had been
dried for this purpose and either soaked in water or spread with butter or
fat before consumption. Alter consuming this narcotic, a person becomes
almost crazy, undergoes severe hallucinations, and sings in a loud voice all
night long until, completely e.xhausted. he finally falls helpless on the
ground and lies unconscious for a long time. Gods also find pleasure in this
narcotic. Thus a hvmn addressed to the ‘Man-Who-Observes-the-W’orld’
(niir susHe-x«»t) contains the following lines:

While you, in the comer of your seven-sided holy house that came from
vour father MiHii-TareHi [Upper Heavens), your seven partitioned golden
house, on your seven golden-footed tables, on your seven goldcn-lidded
chests, run about in ecstasy caused by seven one-footed glasses, as you are
running about in ecstasy caused by seven one-footed notch-edged fly-agarics
(akw la^vlep lar'sin xu:rpa sa-.t painx se:owen xajtncn xalt). may your holy
little ear, which is as big as a lake, as big as the Ob. nevertheless hearken
here. May your golden eyes, which reflect the Ob. sparkle in this direction !
(\'ogul Nepkbltesi Gyujtemeny. 11:314)

This thought is expressed in another hymn to the same deity as follows:

While you run about in the ecstasy of your intoxication caused by seven
fly-agarics with spotted heads (kumlin pupkep sa :t paiox kus'man. seroxwen
Xajtne xalt), may your naind, demanding blood sacrifice, may your mind,
demandingfood sacrifice, like the swelling water of the Ob, like the swelling
water of the Lake, direct itself here. (JhiJ.. 11:362)

In the song about the creation of the heavens and the earth, recorded by

Reguly, we are told of the Kami woman’s oldest son, who later turned into a

bear, that when after a three-dav beer feast he had not vet achieved the

» *

intoxication he had been longing for, he asked his wife to bring btm t/irce Jly-

307

EXHIBITS

rtgiina t/wt had beat dried in the sun (/prtel tD:sem xu:rem parox). and that
after he consumed these, he Jlew into such a rage that he mercilessly slaughtered a
great croivti of people. (Ibid., 1:114)

In the name paijx of this narcotic we recognize the Old Persian word ba7jlta-,
whose meaning, according to Bartholomae (Altiranisches Worterbuch. 925),
is the following: ‘i. Name of a plant (and its juice) which was also used for
producing abortions; 2. Name of a narcotic made from that plant and also a
designation of the state of narcosis produced thereby.’ Other instances of
this word are: Sanskrit: Witingn-, fc/wnga-, meaning 'hemp; a narcotic prepared
from hemp seeds’: modern Persian: bang, ‘henbane’ [Hyoscyamus niger]
(hangi. ‘senseless’); Armenian: bang, ‘hyoscyamus’; Afghan: bang, ‘hemp’
(Horn, Modern Persian Etymolog)’. 53; Uhlenbeck. Etymological Dictionary
of the Old Indian language, 194). According to Wilhelm Geiger (East Iranian
Culture in Ancient Times, p. 152). hemp is used in Persia for making ‘the
notorius hashish, the use of which deranges the human organism in the most
frightful manner’. From all this we conclude that the Vogul word payx.
Ostyak potjx. ‘mushroom, fly-agaric’, as well as the Mordvinian word pavga,
and the Chcremis poijgo, ‘mushroom’, according to their original etymon,
have properly the meaning ‘intoxicating’, ‘narcotic’, and that the knowledge
of this culture product among the Finnish peoples comes from the Aryans,
Just as this may be assumed to be true with regard to ‘beer’ (Vogul, Zyrian,
Votyak sur. Vogul sor, Ostyak sor, Hungarian ser, sdr, Sanskrit surd, Avestan
fiiira, ‘a spirituous drink, chiefly brandy’ or ‘beer’.)

[33]

Kannisto, Artturi. E. A. Virtanen and Matti Liimola, editors. Ma-
terialien zur Mythologie der Wogulen gesammelc von Artturi
Kannisto.’ (Materials on the Mytholog)"^ of the Vogul Gathered by
Artturi Kannisto) Memoires de la Societe Finno-ougrienne. Vol. 113.
pp. 419-420.

In order to become intoxicated, the Vogul shaman employs or used to
employ, above all things, the fly-agaric (paiijx. etc.); after having

eaten them, he becomes intoxicated. He must be in this state when e
begins to exercise his functions [as shaman]. From the area around t e
river Sosva we have the report that fly-agarics grow out of a single foot, six
or seven of them together; when they are dry. they are yellowish brown.

j.paivx p^tpk arc the same term in two dialects.

308

1 . THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Around the Upper Lozva, the term pa.yx refers to a small mushroom (not
the beautiful many-colored fly-agaric) that grows at the base of a tree stump
and the like in clusters, as if out from a single root; the shamans .

dry and eat them. In the area around the Lower Konda the pa:)jx ‘^re collected
after St. Peter’s Day and dried in the hut. The shaman Me<iir-x<ir or l.’(tilay-X<«r
eats seven of them when he begins his seance. Before they are eaten they are
soaked in water; if there is butter on hand, they are eaten with butter;
otherwise without. Once the fly-agaric has begun to afl'ect the shaman, one
says: pti.yxy^ The fly-agaric has come into him’. .After the shaman

has eaten the fly-agaric he walks around the room, sings, and continues the
seance. Around the river Pelymka, the fly-agaric is called saiftodl pa.yx.
fly-agaric that causes loss of sense'. There are male and female fly-agarics
(respectively Ln»i-pa;yi;and He.--pa.yk): the former are eaten by male shamans
and the latter bv female shamans. One must eat either three or seven of
them. Nowadays fly-agarics are no longer used around the Pelymka. When
the shaman ‘makes the room dark’ and eats fly-agaric before his seance, he
must don wtj.rim ‘sacrificial clothes’ (Upper Lozva).

p. z8b. Around the area of the Lower Konda he [A:<h 7 ay the shaman'] says
which sacrifice is to be made after he has eaten fly-agaric, and he sleeps after
having eaten them.

pp. 429-430. Around the area of the Lower Konda there are shamans who
are married, unmarried, or who have been married in the past, as well as
male and female shamans. The tJilay (shaman) also performs the following;
he eats seven fly-agarics on the preceding evening, walks about the room,
leaves the room a number of times, looks at the sky, yells something, enters,
lies down, and remains in that position until morning. Then he tells what he
knows and gives advice.

[28a]

Donner, Kai. ‘Ethnological Notes about the Yenisey-Ostyak (in the
Turukhansk Region)’ Memoires de la Societe Finno-ougrienne lxvi.
Helsinki. 1933, pp. 81-82.

Donner here says that Iwygo means 'fly-agaric' in the dialect of Ket spoken
in the Turukhansk region. We have already given the quotation under [28].

309

EXHIBITS

[24a]

Lehtisalo, T. I. Juhlakirja Yrjo Wichmannin kuusikymmenvuoti-
spaivaksi. (Publication in honor of Yrjo Wichmann's 60th birthday)
Memoires de la Societe Finno-ougrienne. Vol. Lvin. Helsinki. 1928,
p. 122.

On this page there is a note on a word reported by Castren in the Tavgi
tongue, one of the Samoyed languages, called in the Soviet Union today
the language of the Nganasan people. That word is: fat>kd^am, ‘to be drunk*.
He sees parallels with this word in various Finno-Ugrian languages;

Mordvinian: paogo. ‘mushroom. lichen’

Cheremis: pooga. ‘mushroom’

Vogui: P 30 X* pioka, ‘fly-agaric’

Ostyak; pa^OX- pa:nk, paox^^ni. puoklem. depending on the dialect;

the meaning is ‘fly-agaric’

From the wide dissemination of this word the author concludes that in-
toxication from eating the fly-agaric goes back probably to pre-Uralic times.

The similarity of this word to the Latin fungiis, Greek may be

merely accidental. Munkacsi’s assumption that the Finno-ugrians borrowed
the word from Indo-Iranian is not likely, the author holds, giving as the ex-
ample in Sanskrit bhahga-s, ‘hemp and the narcotic substance made from it'.

2. ‘Sampa, sammas*. Virittaja. Helsinki. 1929. pp. 130-132. Translated
from the Finnish.

Our language has many words phonetically reminiscent of the term sampo
in the Kalevala. They may all belong to the same word family. Of these only
one has been compared with an equivalent in the more distant related
languages, vi^., the word sammakko, sammakka (‘frog*, ‘toad’) [and other re-
lated words - row], which has been linked to Lapp cuobo, gen. cubbu, frog ,
‘toad’. (Vide E. N. Setala, ‘Zur Etymologic von Sampo, fufu, pp. 146 ff.)In this
paper I will present a form from Samoyed that corresponds to another wor
in this Finnish family. Since the word I am writing about must be kept distinct
phonetically from sammakko, etc., we must reckon with two word families ol
the type sampa. ,

Let us look at the following Samoyedic forms. Yurak Samoyed. sfl.mpiiM to

310

1 . THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

carry the ghost-soul of the deceased to the hereafter to the accompaniment of
the shaman-5 drum'. . . . [and other dialectal forms] meaning to smg an
incantation to the accompaniment of the shaman’s drum’, he who sings an
incantation to the accompaniment of the shaman’s drum , shaman . etc.
On the Finno-Ugric side, we are immediately reminded of the Ostyak
word (Konda dialect) pavxt^m. 'to sing and shamanize after having eaten
fly-agaric; to cure with incantations*. This word is of course related to Ostyak
payx. ‘fly-agaric’. (Vide NSFOu Dol. 58. p- 122-) Bearing this in mind, the
nc-tt step is to look for a word meaning ’fungus’ or mushroom that might be
phonetically linked with the Samoyed words mentioned above. Thus we
come upon the Finnish words »i<i(i»Siimpii, pulTball , and puunstimpu, a \\ hite
pinhead-sized efllorescence on birches, alders, and willows’, in which we
propose that the element Siimpa originally meant ‘fungus or mushroom .
The Samoyed words go back to the initial palatalized sibilant *s-, which
distinguishes them, on the evidence of Lapp, from the word S(imHirtH.M. which
goes back to V-.

Closely related to the meaning ‘fungus’, ‘mushroom’, ‘efflorescence’, arc
the disease names smnpu, saiiunus. sfluiprttir, ‘childhood disease affecting the
mucus membrane of the mouth; swollen glands in the jaw’ (Mikkeli area);
‘glands in the Jaw’ (Hame. Savo); ‘a disease of horses’ (Viitasaari). From this
we proceed further to the word s<imw<isvcsi, ‘water from a certain spring used
to cure 5<JHiHWs’ (Saaksmaki); ‘water from a hole in a rock used to wash out
the mouth of a child suffering from Siimiims’ (Luopioinen). According to
Gottlund, the word sflHiin<islii/ide is used to designate medicinal springs
where a specified amount is paid when water is taken from them.

It might be mentioned also in passing that it would be tempting to link
tatti, ‘fungus’, ‘mushroom’, with the following Samoyed word: Yurak Sa-
moyed . . . [The author supplies various words from Samoyed dialects mean-
ing ‘shaman’. But he concludes that this is rendered somewhat uncertain
as tatti might be related to a different Yurak Samoyed word, though in turn
there are counter-arguments that the author gives. - rgw]

We may furthermore bear in mind that I have linked the Tavgi Samoyed
fanhd’am, ‘to be inebriated’, with the words in the Finno-Ugric family of
languages meaning ‘mushroom’ and ‘fly-agaric’; cf., e.g., Mordvin paygo.
‘mushroom’. Ostyak pa.-yx. ‘fly-agaric’ (vide NSFOu Lviii, p. 122). [The writer
now quotes Donner and others whom we have translated. - rgw] We may
regard it as certain that in the dim antiquity of the Proto-Uralic period the
Finnic shaman ate intoxicating fly-agaric during his sorcery sessions. We now
understand how it was that later, when the shaman had stopped eating the
fly-agaric and was beating his drum, he relapsed in the course of his sorcery

311

EXHIBITS

session into a state resembling madness and finally fell unconscious to the
ground (‘falling into a trance').

UoTiLA, T. E. ‘Etymologioita.’ (‘Etymologies’) Virittaja. Helsinki. 1930,
pp. 176-7.

Some Asian and notably Finno-Ugric peoples use the fly-agaric for ine-
briating purposes. Here are the members of this word family:

Mordvinian (Moksa)

(Erza)

Cheremis
Ostyak (North)
(Irtysh)

Other

Dialects

Vogul (North)

Tavgi

Selkup

-panga. ‘mushroom’

-paogo, ‘mushroom, lichen’

-poogo, paoga, ‘fungus’

-poDX- ‘mushroom, fly-agaric’

•paox. ‘fly-agaric’

-paox.

-paok,

•panx^am 'to shamanize while singing after
-puoklam having eaten the fly-agaric; to cure by
shamanizing’

-panx- pioka, ‘fly-agaric’

-fanka’am, ‘to be drunk’

-pooer, ‘drum’

-pangar, ‘a special Selkup musical instrument

These words belong to the Uralic family *pSiifc8 (the ‘8’ = back vowel). To
it belong the following Zyrian forms:

(Sysola dialect) -pagalny, ‘to lose one’s consciousness

-pagavny, 'to poison oneself, to kill oneself
^Lg2a) bitter taste in beer’, ‘sour, sharp, penetrating

After giving some more derivatives, the author says that they «fle« the
effect of the fly-agaric on those who have eaten it. From the Uralic root p n
Uotila derives the *pag form meaning the fly-agaric; and pagyr, itter, rom
■having the taste of fly-agaric’, and pagal, ‘the power to inebriate .

312

L THE- FLV-AGARIC IN SIRHRIA

liounx Karl D,is rsLlmktachische. (The Chukchi) Published as Part 4
in BLMtrage /ur Kaukasischen und Sibirischen Spracinvissenschalt, by
Deutsche Morgenlaiidische Gcsellschalt. Leipzig. 1941-

In tliis philological study Rouda on p. 35 under entry 20 discusses Cluikchi
/'oy/’i'n. /'Ciiipey, meaning inushroom. By comparing it with Koryak
mushroom, and ‘without mushrooms’, he arrives at the t.hukchi

root pci). He ctnuparcs these words with

ChtTcniis:
iMorJx iiii.in:
ONtvak:
\‘i)gul:

'imishroom'
/'eyx^. ’Ily-agaric’

In a footnote he calls attention to the use tif the fly-agaric by the Ob-L’grian
shamans so that, having been etttranced by its poison, they may commtinicate
with gods and spirits.

Sti inuz. Wolfgang. Geschichlc des Finnisch-ugrischen Vokalisimis.
(History of Finno-Ugriati Vowel Structure) Stockholm. 1044. p. 37 -

The author includes in his list of words the \'ogul paijk. Ily-agaric, which
in Mordvinian is piivgo.' In the Ostyak of Surgut he supposes that there has
been an alternation of the vowel from *<i to '*n to *i. leading to these three
forms: pjyW/em; /Miyjc/.yti; pyi)kla. Only *}'in \’ogul. with p.’;yJl:- in one dialect.
Changing vowel in Cheremis; poyga. It is unclear whether Zyrian piig*il-,
pa^yr comes frotu this source.

i.Thc Mordvinian and Chcrcmisi word means ‘mushroom*.

313

EXHIBITS

[ 3 -]

Hajdu, P.Von derKlassifikation der samojedischen Schamanen. (On the
classification of Samoyed Shamans) Glaubenswelc und Folklore der
sibirischen \olker. (Religion and Folklore of the Siberian Peoples)
Edited byV.Dioszegi. Akademiai Kiado, Budapest. 1963. pp. 161-190.

p. 170. T. Lehtisalo is of the opinion that the family of the Nenets (Samoyed)
word sa;»ipa; may be related to the Finnish word sampa. fungus, sea-foam.'
This Finnish word occurs in the names of diseases, as. for example, sampa,
sammas, sav\paat, a disease of the mucous membrane of the mouth in children :
swelling of the submaxillar)' glands; a disease of horses. The word is also
found in compounds such as maansampa, puffball; puunsampa, white mush-
room the size of a pinhead on birches, willows, and alders. According to
Lehtisalo. the meaning ‘to work magic’ originally referred to magic that was
performed in the state of ecstasy brought on by fly-agarics. For a semantic
confirmation of this, he dtes the Khanti verb to work magic while

singing after consuming fly-agarics, to heal by magic (< : panx, fly-agaric) On
phonetic grounds. Lehtisalo distinguishes the Finnish srfMipfl-Nenets sti.mpti;
from the Finnish sampo and its derivatives. This is certainly an imaginative
explanation, but there are many reasons which compel us to disagree with it.
In the first place, this comparison seems doubtful to us because the agreement
between the words is found only in the two most widely separated members
of the Uralic language family. Another argument against it is that the
meaning ‘mushroom’ has not been found in Samoyed and the meaning to
work magic in the state of ecstasy brought on by fly-agaric is unknown in
these languages. One could suppose, of course, that the verb to work magic
was expressed by a derivative of a word meaning ‘mushroom ; however, in
Samoyed the form su.nipa; is without a suffix, in so far as we can consider

it to be the form corresponding to the Finnish sampa.

Because of these many problems. I have attempted to find a different

explanation for the Samoyed sampa:.

[The author then refers the reader to an article that he wrote, ‘Etimologiai
megjeg)'zesek’ (‘Enmologische Bemerkungen') ['Etymological Notes], in
Nyelvuidemtinyi Ko^lemenyek, Vol. lvi, pp, 53*56-]

I. Lehtisalo. T. 'Sampa, sammas'. ViritUljS, Vol. xxxm. pp- I30*i3i-

[Our ref. [wa] PP- 3 io- 3 ia-*cw]

314

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

[38]

Balazs. 1. 'Cher die Bkstasc dcs ung.irischen Schamenen ’ (On the
Bestasv of the Hungarian Shamans) Glaubenswelt und Folklore der
Sibirischen Vblker. (Religion and Folklore ot the Siberian Peoples)
Edited by V. Dioszegi. pp. 57 - 83 - Akademiai Kiado, Budapest. 1063.

[Sections i and 1 (pp. 57 - 59 ) discuss the Hungarian word rejt. hide, the
Old Hungarian word variously spelled riit. rot. rSjt. reiit. rit, riiif, entrance, en-
rapture.' and the problems whether these two words are related in meaning
and whether one or both may be traced back to the shamanism of the Ugric

period. - RGw]

PP- 39-67. ,

3. We may come closer to a solution of this problem it we investigate the

methods bv which the shamans worked themselves into a state of ecstasy ; in

this process we shall make use of the latest linguistic, ethnographic, and

archxological results, as well as a critical analysis of earlier data. The semantic

e.xplanation of the Hungarian verb rejf. 'ecstasize.' is based, to this day.

chielly on Hunfalvy’s arguments and on Munkacsi's commentaries on the

Russian academician P. S. Pallas s description of his travels.

Concerning the ecstasy of the shamans among the Mansi and the ‘northern

shamans in general. Munkacsi writes: 'The visible reality in the magical

performances ol the northern shaman is that he transports himself into a

state of unconsciousness resembling a trance, i.e.. into a state ol ecstasy.

Even when he begins the magical performance, he is in a befogged condition

owing to the fly-agaric or brandy he has previously taken. His drunkenness

and his agitated nervous state are intensified by the loot-stamping, the loud,

excited singing, the wild howling, and the noise of clashing kettles and pots,

as well as by the illusion of being in communication, or even in combat,

with the spirit.’ Here we see that the shaman eats the poisonous fly-agaric or

becomes drunk with brandy and in this way achieves a state of trance. In

connection with the shamanism of the Ugric peoples, Karjalainen mentions

that the shamans of the Irtysh-Khanty often used the fly-agaric as a narcotic.

Many travelers describe how the Siberian shamans cat fly-agarics and thus

fall into a state of ecstasy.

A systematic compilation of such data has been made by A. Ohlmarks. He
states that the fly-agaric (Awanini muscaria L. Pers.) is the stupefacient most
commonly used by shamans among the Koryak. Kamchadal, Nentsy (Yur-
ak Samoyed), and Selkup (Ostyak Samoyed), and among the Khanty along

315

EXHIBITS

the Yenisei and the Irtysh. Ohlmarks devotes a separate chapter to alcohol,
which is used as a stupefacient by the shamans of many Siberian tribes. He
states that the shamans of the Irtysh-Khanty, the Tungus. the Lapps, the
Buryats, and other peoples often drink alcoholic beverages until they lose
consciousness. Nevertheless alcohol cannot compare with the fly-agaric as an
effective narcotic. The designations for the fly-agaric form a very widespread
family of words in the Ob-Ugric languages and in a number of Finno-Ugric
languages. The corresponding derivations are extraordinarily revealing from
a semantic point of view because they indicate the method (quite likely a
very old and very widespread method) by which the Finno-Ugrian shamans
achieved a state of ecstasy.

Here is a list of the etymologically related words for the fly-agaric in the
various Finno-Ugric languages:

Mansi: p<jyx. pivkih ‘fly-agaric’; Northern dialect: pa.-yx; Middle Lozva
dialect: peijk, 'fly-agaric, agaricus ntuscarius'; Khanti Northern dialect: povx>
‘mushroom, fly-agaric’; Irtysh dialect :p<i.yx. ‘fly-agaric’ ; Yugan dialect:
ptn;g<j,p(j:yx. ‘fly-agaric’; Irtysh dialect :pyyk(puybm), 'the fly-agaric’; Lower-
Demyanka dialect: pntjx', Verkh, Kalymsk, Vartokovsk dialect: patjk; Tre-
myugan dialect: payfe; Nizyam-Berezovo dialect: popxi Kazum dialect: ponk,
‘fly-agaric’; Mordvinian: panga. ptiijgo, ‘mushroom’; Cheremis: priyga, povgo,
piiyya, ‘mushroom’.

The importance of the poisonous fly-agaric in the ecstasy of the Mansi
shamans is proved by the fact that in the Northern Mansi dialect the word
pn.VX means ‘drunkenness’.

The following words are derivatives by which the concepts of 'drunkenness,
ecstasy’ arc e.xpressed in Mansi: p(t:tjxli, p(i:VX^ta:li; Lozva Pelym dialect:
payWi, ‘he is drunk, intoxicated.’ Likewise, p<iyxle»t in the Northern Khanti
dialect and put^khm in the Irtysh dialect mean ‘to work magic while singing
after eating fly-agarics, to heal by enchantment’; in the Upper Demyanka
dialect means ‘to shout and make noise after eating fly-agarics , in

the Tremyugan dialect pjtjhlta:y? means 'to become intoxicated with fly-
agaric. to sing through the effects of fly-agaric.’ The singing of the shaman
who is transported into ecstasy by eating fly-agarics is expressed in Khanti
by the following words: Tremyugan dialect: payfe (J.tsx. payfcafsdHY^, fly
agaric song, a song which the shaman sings after eating fly-agarics , Vasyugan
dialect: panbmtt^v, ‘song which is sung after eating fly-agarics .

According to T. E. Uotila, the following also belong to this word family: in
Komi (Wichm.), Sysola dialect: pagal-, to lose consciousness (i.e.. through
drinking alcohol): (Wied.): pagab (pagav-), to lose consciousness, to be over-
whelmed (?) [or: to be deluded {?)]: (Sachow [or: Zakhov]): pagav-, to poison

316

I. THE FLY-AGAIUC IN SIBERIA

oneself, to kill oneself: Udorka-Wishka di.ilect; to be unste.tdy. to stagger.
Sysola dialect. According to Uotila the primary noun root of these words is
*pag-. which we can relate to the above words denoting the lly-agaric. He
believes that this word must also have existed in Komi and cites as evidence
the folUiwing Komi adjectives: (Wichm.) Lu/a dialect: yagyr, sour, sharp
(like the taste of beer): (Wied.): sour, sharp, penetrating; (Wichm.):

penetrating (beer), yti^yui. sharp-tasting. Lotila assumes that these
adjectives are derised from the noun 'tly-agaric,’ by adding the sutlix -r
and that their original meaning is tasting like lly-agaric. He believes that a
special significance must have been attached to the lly-agaric in the Komi
language also. Steinitz, on the other hand, doubts that the reference to
these Komi words is justified in this connection. They may have acc]uiied
their me.iningof 'fallingintoecstasy. into a trance’ through the same semantic
development as the above-mentioned Mansi and Khanti verbs with similar

meanings.

According to Lehtisalo the following words also belong to this category:
Nganasan (Castr.) to be drunk, and even Selkup (Castr.), Kamas,

Kheya, Kha. I’pper-Ob dialect yoixr. drum. Tym dialect p.nj^ar, a special
Samoved musical instrument, the Russian iloiiini; Narym. Lower \ asyugan.

Middle-Ket dialect p.’y^.>r. Upper-Ket dialect pv:tiS<J r, Khaya dialect paggar.
the same.

Lehtisalo compares the Nenets verb s«i;>np»i:. to sing the shade of a dead
person dow n into the underworld to the accompaniment of the magic drum,
tic., with the Finnish noun saiii/’U: imwMSiiHipii. pull ball, puHiisuinpd. a whitish
mushroom the size of a pinhead, found on birches, alders, and willows.
If the root of this Samoved verb is a noun meaning ‘mushroom’, then we
have here a semantic relationship similar to that between the following
nouns and verbs: Khanti paryx p<iyxl^»>. Nenets, Obdorsk dialect j<i;p^e;. to
be drunk, Nenets (Reg.) javehs. fly-agaric, Lyamin dialect wi;ppi;, Nyalina
dialect w^i.'ppi;. Pur dialect wi.-pi;, fly-.agaric, Enets, Khantaika dialect jet*iV:-
rro, Bayikha dialect jeiii^edo, to be drunk.

On this basis, Lehtisalo assumes that the Finnish shamans also used the
fly-agaric as a stupefying agent in earlier times and that people probably
‘became intoxicated by eating fly-agarics as early as proto-Uralic times.’

In every case the above-mentioned Finno-Ugric words meaning ‘ecstasy,
intoxication, drunkenness’ are similarly traceable to a noun which means
■fungus, fly-agaric’ and was used figuratively to denote the intoxicated,
ecstatic, or drunken state itself (as in Mansi), w hereas the verbal derivatives
of this same noun in many Finno-Ugric languages have the meaning ‘to fall
into a trance.’ From the semantic viewpoint this requires no further cxpla-

317

EXHIBITS

nation, since it is obvious that (he root-word of derivatives which mean ‘to
come into a condition’ is the same word which is used to denote the substance
producing the condition. There is a causal relationship between such root-
words and their derivatives. The verbs formed from these nouns mean ‘to
provide somebody with something’ or ‘to be provided with something.’
Thus we find not only from descriptions given by travelers but also from
definite linguistic facts (derivatives of Finno-Ugric words which mean ‘fungus’
or ‘fly-agaric’) that the Finno-Ugrian shamans used the fly-agaric as a stupefy-
ing agent in ancient times.

4. It might be asked, however, whether all verbs meaning ‘to fall into
ecstasy’ in the Finno-Ugric languages are derived from a noun meaning ‘fun-
gus’ or ‘fly-agaric,’ and whether these Finno-Ugric w’ords are not loan-w’ords.

Munkacsi believes that these Finno-Ugric words are of Old Iranian origin.
He bases his opinion on the fact that the semantic development of the Old
Iranian word bat)ha is remarkably similar to that of the above-mentioned
Mansi word for the fly-agaric. According to Bartholom® this Old Iranian
word has several diflferent meanings: ‘i.Name of a plant (and its juice)
which was also used for producing abortions; 2. Name of a narcotic made
from that plant and also a designation of the state of narcosis produced
thereby.’ Other references in connection with this word are: Old Indian
WiflHgfl-, bhangd-, ‘hemp; a narcotic prepared from hemp seeds’: modern
Persian fcting, ‘henbane,’ ‘senseless’); Armenian loan-word bflHg.

‘Hyoscyamns niger'; Afghan bang, ‘hemp.’ In Persia, according to W. Geiger,

hashish is made from hemp.

Whether Munkacsi is right in making this correlation is a matter tor
experts in Iranian to decide. As far as the semantic development is con«med.
it is rather difficult to imagine that a word which originaUy meant ‘hemp
would be used by the Finno-Ugric peoples to describe (he fly-agaric, since
these two plants do not resemble each other in the slightest, except tor
their narcotic effect. (Lehtisalo considers the borrowing of these words
unlikely.) Nevertheless, it must be borne in mind that hemp see s mig t
have played, and perhaps still play, a role in the ecstasy of the shamans. We

shall return to this point later.

318

1 . THE FLY-AGAIUC iN SIBERIA

[ 39 ]

PnDKRSEN. Holger. ‘Przyczynki do gratnatyki porownawczej jczyk6w
slowianskich’. (Contributions to the comparative grammar ot Slavic
languages) Matcrialy i Prace Komisyi Jt'zykowej Akadcmn Umie-
j^'tnosci \v Krakowie. Vol. i. No. i. pp. 167-176. Krakow. 1901.

There follows an abstract of the original paper in Polish, an abstract pre-
pared by Roman Jakobson as a working paper.

Old Bulgarian gjiba 'spongia', Polish g^ibka. The Old Bulgarian g,iba is
usually compared with the Lithuanian gumbas. illness of the uterus, e.x-
crescence on a tree', (Miezinis), an excrescence on an organic bod) or on a
stone, colic, cramps of the stomach (Kurschat), Latvian gumba tumor ,
gumpis, 'colic'. This etymolog)' is improbable.

It presents difficulties when one compares the accent of the Lithuanian
gumbas with the Serbian giiba, Slovenian goba: the Serbian short tailing
accent " corresponds to the Lithuanian ', and the Slovenian ' corresponds
to the Lithuanian ' .

Lorentz' law, surmising the change of um to the Slavic is erroneous.

To the Slavic g^ba there corresponds etymologically the Old High German
swamb. Kluge compares swamb with the Greek somphos, ‘porous’, but it is
not plausible. Swamb could represent the Indo-European *sg"hombho-s.
The Indo-European g’'ho gave in Germanic wa, as in the Gothic warms;
Latin formus. In Baltic and Slavic languages the consonant s in the initial
cluster sg had to disappear; compare Old Bulgarian gasiti and Lithuanian
gesyti with Greek sbennymi.

Also the German swamb could be easily explained from the original
sg^'hombho- as well as from *sg'’h6mbho-. But if the Lithuanian gumbas

319

EXHIBITS

does belong here, one must accept *sg“hombho- as the original form and the
Lithuanian gumbas represents the reduction *sg''hrnbho-. The same reduction
occurs in the German sumpf, but English swamp.

Also *sgwombho- could be admitted as the original form. Then the Slavic
g,jba either lost the semivowel w during the Baltic-Slavic stage, or it represents
an Indo-European variant without w.

VII

In this case it is possible to combine gsba: swamb with Greek sfongos.
Latin fungus. The Greek and Latin expressions spring from the original
forms beginning with *sph-. Here also belong Armenian sunk, sung, ‘sponge,
pumice’, but Armenian s can represent only the Indo-European *sp and not
*sph. However it is possible to suppose *sphwongo-. From *sphwongo there
could arise *sgsvompho- and also *sgwombho-: the alternation is

not unusual after the nasal consonants.

320

C. Secofhitir)' Sources

[40]

Hartwich, Carl. Die menschlichen CcMiussmittel : ihre Herkunlt.

\'erbreitung. Geschichtc. Anwciidiing. Bcstaiulteilc und Wirkung.

(Human Stimulants: Their Origin. Distribution, History. Use. Com-
ponents, and Effects) Leipzig. 1911- PP- 255-260.

[H.irtwich was a distinguished toxicologist and pharmacologist ot his day.
He had read widely, he was intelligent, and he expressed himself well and
forcibly. What he WTOte about the fly-agaric in Die mensc/ilic/icn Gemissmittel
reflected the best opinion of his day and in pharmacology it exerted wide
influence: but on the fly-agaric in major features it was wrong or misleading.
As late as 1911 he gave expression to the ancient European superstition that
the fly-agaric is dangerously toxic: ‘four mushrooms can kill a man’. On the
contrary, it is difficult to find case histories of healthy adults who have died
from it. which is in striking contrast to the deadly amanitas! He perpetuates
the notion that the Tungus and Yakut tribesmen - both speaking Altaic
tongues -use the fly-agaric. He quotes 'a Zurich man’s letter dated 1799
reporting that the Russian troops occupying Zurich in that year had gathered
fly-agarics on the Zurichberg and eaten them, allowing his reader to suppose
that it was for their intoxicating effect. In historic times no Russian - whether
Great Russian or Little Russian or White Russian -has taken the fly-agaric
for its inebriating effect. This statement will not be successfully gainsaid.
The Russians have produced numbers of excellent specialists in Slavic folklore
and folk practices, and today when the Russian world stands revealed to us,
thanks to numbers of persons in the West who have learned the language, it
w ould be impossible for a pharmacologist of standing to say that the Russians
eat the mni.’/ioiHor. as they call the fly-agaric, for the inebriation that follows.
True, there have been reports that some of the Russian civil servants and
Cossacks stationed among the Palaeosiberian tribes have taken the habit
from the natives, but it is not in this sense that ignorant people lay the charge
of fly-agaric eating. A West, where only yesterday there were elements in
the educated classes that regarded the Russians as l7«termeH5c/i and not
worthy of study, w'as prepared to believe anything that, according to Western
prejudices, was degrading about their neighbors in Eastern Europe. It is not
that consuming the fly-agaric would have been disgraceful, any more than
consuming alcohol or tobacco. But there were Westerners w'ho believed the

321

EXHIBITS

Russians ate the fly-agaric, as Hartwich seems to have done. It was not so.
Diverse cultures should not be confused: each stands on its own bottom,
and to associate the Slavic culture with that of the Koryak is like asking an
American tourist whether Iroquois is his native tongue.

[Hartwich of course gives some measure of credence to the belief, common
in Scandinavia, that berserk-raging was produced by the fly-agaric. On the
use of the fly-agaric in Siberia Hartwich quotes Enderli, who is excellent, and
Kennan, who is childish. He ignores Strahlenberg. Maydell, Langsdorf,
Georgi, Erman, and Dittmar, who wrote in German; Krasheninnikov who
was translated into German; and Bogoraz and Jochelson, whose works had
already been published in English in Leiden. Had he done his homework
properly, he would have found some answers to the questions that baffled
him, such as a possible explanation for the urine drinking of the reindeer
folk. He also draws on Ernst von Bibra, a pioneer pharmacologist whose Die
narkotisclien Genussmittel uud der Mensch appeared in Nuremberg in 1855.
though he was only a secondary source relying on writers whom Hartwich
should have read. He quotes Kennan to the effect that the continued use of
the fly-agaric has harmful results, adding that Kennan no doubt was right.
Kennan had been in the Kor)'ak countr)*, but the man on the spot can be a
bad observer and Kennan’s text gives no ground for reliance on his word.
The fly-agaric may be harmful if its use is continued, but it is the function of
a man of science to reduce the area of guessing and not himself reach con-
clusions that are only guesses. The excessive use of alcohol is harmful, but not
the continued moderate use. May this not be true of the fly-agaric? -rgw]

The fly-agaric is one of the most remarkable stimulants. Except for one
other\vjse unknown poisonous mushroom which was consumed as a deli-
cacy’ by the ancient Mexicans, it is the only stimulant in the broad sub-
kingdom of cryptogamic plants, and no other stimulant ranges so far north.
Only some unusual forms of alcohol production from milk are found in the
region of Siberia bordering on the area where fly-agaric is used, and in
the extraordinary method of its use it is unparalleled by any other stimulant

on earth.

The fly-agaric {Amanita muscaria L. Pers.) grows in forests and its distnbu-
tion is circumpolar in the northern hemisphere; it is found in Europe. Nort ■
ern Asia, and North America, but it also occurs in South Africa.*

I. Today we know that there are more than a dozen spcdcs of these mushrooms.

each of them names. I would take exception to Hartwich's use of the ^ j jc

ready to apply it also to alcohol and tobacco. 'Delicacy- is hardly the word to dcscnbe the

of the Indians toward their holy cucharist. - row.
a. Englcr*Pranth PjlanzcnfamUien (Plant Families) i* i, ^75*

322

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Ic is highly poisonous, and the splendid red colour of its cap. with its sharply
contrasting white warts, sometimes entices the inexperienced to eat it. A
great many deaths traceable to this cause have been reported. Four mush-
rooms can kill a man; sheep, on the other hand, appear to be immune to it.
The symptoms observed after such poisoning are nausea, vomiting, thirst,
colic pains, mucous and bloody stools, tlow of saliva, and fainting spells;
sometimes there are also intoxication-like states and lethargy, dilation of the
pupils with disturbed vision and even temporary blindness, delirium, hal-
lucinations. raving, cyanosis (blue colouration of the skin). dilHculty in breath-
ing. loss of consciousness, and cramps. Death has occurred after ten hours,
or sometimes after eight. A victim may recover after 5 -i 4 hours.' It derives
its name from the fact that an extract of this mushroom was used for killing
flies, particularly in earlier times, before fly-paper saturated with arsenic,
quassia, and the like became widely known. Its use in medicine has always
been insignificant. According to Kosteletzky.* it has been recommended for
use against nervous attacks, swollen glands, ulcers, and - in Kosteletzky s
time -for use as a powder or tincture against consumption.

At present it is used as a stimulant only in Siberia, and its range is very
extensive. It begins with the Ostyaks. whose territory extends from the Ob
to the Yenisei. From here it continues uninterrupted to the easternmost part
of Asia. After the Ostyaks come the Samoyeds and Tunguzes, then the
Yakuts, the Yukagirs, the Chukchis. the Koryaks, and the Kamchadals. The
area of fly-agaric use probably does not extend far south of 6 o° north latitude
at any point.

According to some reports, the use of the mushroom extended farther
west in earlier days and was perhaps forced back by the spread of alcohol. .Y
Zurich man's letter dated 1799,* the year in which a Russian army under
Korsakoff was in Zurich, mentions with amazentent the fact that the Russians
gathered fly-agarics on the Zurichberg and ate them. These Russians, of
course, must have become acquainted with the mushrooms in their own
homeland.

At Polotsk on the Dvina (presumably in 1812) French soldiers ate fly-agarics,
and four of them died within a short time."* No doubt thev had seen the local
inhabitants eating the mushrooms. W’hile the Russians in these last two

i.Lcwin, Uhrbtuh dcr Toxikolcgie (Textbook of Toxicology), second edition, 1897. p. 410.

1. Kosteletzky, Med, Pharm. Flora, Vol. 1. 1831. p. 13.

3. In recent years we have made strenuous efToris 10 locate this letter but without success. The
fly-agaric can be prepared properly for the table. Whether the Russians in some parts of that vast
country may have known how, wc cannot say. - row.

4- Vadrot, 1814. After Orfila, Aflgemrme Toxifcolagie (General Toxicology), translated into German
by Hermbsiadf. 1818, Vol. 4, p. 40.

323

EXHIBITS

cases were probably not Mongols, as in Siberia, but Slavs, there are conjectures
that go even further, and according to some, it may be assumed that even
Germanic peoples used the fly-agaric in earlier times. For example, it is
sometimes reported' that the berserkers - those Germanic warriors who
attacked the enemy in a wild frenzy, naked and without adequate defensive
\\ eapons. and who in some ways resembled Malays who run amuck -
worked themselves into such a stale of senseless fury by drinking fly-agaric
mixed with an alcoholic drink. These are merely conjectures; nevertheless,
the possibility must be considered that the use of fly-agaric was more wide-
spread in earlier times than it is today.

The mushroom is used in a good many different ways in Siberia, but it is
certainly not true that it is fermented into a beverage; assertions to this
effect are obviously due to a confusion with the production of alcohol through
fermentation. According to von Bibra, it is eaten fresh in soups or sauces, but
it is reputed to be less effective when used in this way than in the dried state;
this is readily understandable in view of the high water content of the fresh
mushroom. It is called by the names Hi»c/tnmor, and niiic/to-more.*

It seems to be a fairly common custom to eat the mushroom in the juice of
berries of Vaccinium uUgiitosum L. or in an extract made from the leaves of
the narrow-leafed willow herb (EpiloMinn L.). (I should point

out that these berries are believed by some to have an intoxicating effect, as
is suggested by the German names RuHsc/ibcere and Truiifcelteere.) Even though
there are a few reports of cases in which an effect of this kind has been ob-
served, there are many others of cases in which the berries were eaten with-
out any such effect. Ascherson believes that the reports of intoxication are
due to a confusion of the berries with those ofEmpetnnii nigrinn L. (crowber-
ries), which are also called Rtiiisc/ibeere in German. But the fact seems to be
that these also can be eaten without ill effects. I remember that in describing
his crossing of Greenland. F. Nansen writes that he and his companions ate
tremendous amounts of this fruit. (See also Schubeler. Pjlanzenwelt Nonvegens

[Flora of Norway], pp. 276 and 324 . . .)

The most common practice, however, is simply eating the mushroom in a

dried state. It has been observed that the active component passes unchanged
into the urine, and this remarkable fact has been utilized to obtain a long
series of successive effects with a relatively small quantity of mushrooms.

[Hartwich then quotes J. Enderli in full; vide our text. (19I

The most striking thing in this detailed account is that the acti\e pnn p
of the mushroom evidently is excreted unchanged in the urine, so that the

1. e.g., in E. Krause, Tiii5t<)-LiH4 (Tuisko Land), 1891. p. 379- Lewin,

2. Why did not Hartwich look up mnfchemi)r in a Russian lexicon? -

l.c.

ROW.

324

I. THB FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

latter retains the elTectivencss of the mushroom. There is no doubt whatever
that the urine is drunk for purposes of intoxication, and this has also been
reported by other observers. According to Kennan,' however, it is only the
settled and more primitive Koryaks who know this custom. \'on Bibra reports
that the efticacy is not lost even after repeated consumption, so that four or
five people in succession may be intoxicated by the same quantity of mush-
roonis, first directly and then indirectly.

Apart from the fact that this custom strikes us as highly unappetizing, it
seems strange at first glance that the Koryaks could ever have hit upon the
idea of drinking urine. Of course, the intoxicating efl'ect of the urine might
have been noticed by accident when a man intoxicated with fly-agaric mis-
takenly drank the urine which he had collected in a container in the close
quarters of the yurt. It must also be remembered, however, that urine was
not always and everywhere regarded as something repugnant. Among the
Chinese it is still used as a medicine, both in its original state and in the form
of the residue left after evaporation. Not only among the Chinese, however,
but even in our own part of the world, it occasionally has a role in folk use.
although the role is that of a sympathetic agent rather than a recognized
medicament. (Vide, for example. Kristian Frantz Paulini, *Veii-\'erme/irfe
Heylsdine Drecfe-.lpal/iete, ‘On how almost ever)' kind of. . . illness, and harm
done by sorcery ... is successfully cured by means of excrement and urine -
Franckfort am Mayn, 1734. A new edition of this book was printed about the
middle of the last century. I also have before me a new edition of another
Drecfc-.fpot/ieFe, which turns out to be an extract of Paulini's book.) If we go
back several centuries, we find that science regarded urine not as merely a
substance excreted by the body but as something with a special mystery
about it. It was ideas of this kind that led Brand in Hamburg in 1670

to seek the philosophers stone in urine and to discover that it contained
phosphorus.

It is also noteworthy that the mushroom-eater discovers the future in his
intoxication if he follows certain prescribed formulas. Thus we see that there
is a religious factor involved. In this same connection, von Bibra reports that
the shamans, the Siberian sorcerer-priests, use the mushroom to transport
themselves into a state of ecstasy.* (This is not explicitly stated on page 136 of
von Bibra 's book, but it is unmistakably clear from the context.) His dcs-

I. George Kennan Tmt Life in Siberia, p. ,56 of D. Haik’s German translation. Zcitleben Sibirim
Leipzig. Rcclamschc Dibliochek.

2. 0. Stoll. und Hypnotismru in dtr Wlk^rpsychohgic [Suggestion and Hypnotism in Folk

Ps>chology]. second edition. 1904. He discusses the Siberian shamans and their tricks in detail but

iZ 7 tl 7 1 i he attributes

this state to loud noises, dance movements, and auto-suggestion developed by practice.

325

EXHIBITS

cription of the eflfects differs in some ways from Enderli’s: the symptoms des-
cribed by von Bibra are, in general, not so severe, and the people in his account
act in a more lively manner - those with musical talent sing without inter-
ruption, while others converse, laugh, and tell their secrets to all the world.
They lose their sense of space and leap into the air in order to get over a
straw or other small object. Frequently, however, muscular strength is also
remarkably increased: one man intoxicated with fly-agaric carried a 120-
pound weight for about 10 miles.

According to Kennan (p. 156 of the German translation) - who says, no
doubt quite rightly, that continued use of the fly agaric has very harmful
results -the practice has been prohibited by the Russians in Siberia; as we
have seen, this prohibition has had as little effect as the prohibition of other
stimulants. An indication of the Koryaks’ craving for the mushroom may
be found in the high prices they pay for it. Since the mushroom does not
grow on the Koryaks’ own steppes, it is brought to them by Russian dealers,
and Kennan reports that he saw furs worth 25 rubles paid for a single mush-
room.

[41I

Eliade, Mircea. i. Yoga: Immortality and Freedom. Pantheon Books.
New York. 1958. A translation from: Le Yoga: Immortalite et
Liberte. Paris. 1954. pp. 338-9 (French text: p. 335).

[In the following excerpts from this writer's books we have printed in
italic certain passages on which we will comment. - Rcw]

In ihe sphere of shamanism, strictly speaking, intoxication by drugs {hemp, mush-
rooms, tobacco, etc.) seems not to have formed part of the original practice. For,
on the one hand, shamanic myths and folklore record a decadence among the
shamans of the present day. who have become unable to obtain ecstasy in the fashion
of the ‘great shamans of long ago’; on the other, it has been observed that where
shamanism is in decomposition and the trance is simulated, there is also over-
indulgence in intoxicants and drugs. In the sphere of shamanism itself, however,
we must distinguish between l/i/s (probably recent) phenomenon of mtoxicanon for
the purpose of forcing trance, and the ritual consumption of burning substanc

for the purpose of increasing 'inner heat . . .

326

1 . THK FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

2. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Pantheon Books. New
York. 1964. A translation from: Le ('hamanisme ct les Techniques
archaiques de I’Extase. Paris. i 95 >-

p.477.(lTciu-h ic.vt: p.415) . . . But closer study of the problem gives the impression
that the use of narcotics is, rather, indicative of the decadence of a technique of ecstasy
or of its extension to ‘lower’ peoples or social groups. In any case, we /i.iiv ohserveJ
llutt the use a/' niiriviics (tolniaa. cfc.) i.< rWatiVWy recotf in the shamanism of the far
Northeast.

pp. 400-1. (French text: 300-1). The importance of the intoxication sought from
hemp is further confirmed bv the extremely wide dis.semination of the Iranian term
through Central Asia. In a number of L'grian languages the Iranian word for hemp.

has come to designate both the preeminently shamanic mushroom .Agiiriciis
iimsciiniis (which is used as a means of intoxication before or during the seance) and
intoxication:' compare, for example, the X’ogul ptiiiWi, ‘mushroom’ (.-fguriciis miiscti-
nils). Mordvinian ptnigii. pungo. and Cheremis ponge. ‘mushroom.’ In northern \’ogul,
p(inl:li also means ‘intoxication, drunkenness.’ The hymns to the divinities refer to
ecstasy induced by intoxication by mushrooms.* These facts prove that the magico-
religious value of intoxication for achieving ecstasy is of Iranian origin. .Added to the
other Iranian influences on Central .Asia, to which we shall return. I»iiiig/iii illustrates
the high degree of religious prestige attained by Iran. It is possible that, among the
Ugrians. the technique of shamanic intoxication is of Iranian origin. Eiut what does
this prove concerning the original shamanic experience? Narcotics are only a vulgar
substitute for ’pure’ trance. B’e /uive uircadv liUil occasion to note l/iis Jlict lUiioiig seveni/
SitcriJH peoples; the use of iutoxicatits {alcohol, tobacco, etc.) is a recent innovation and
points to a decadence in shamanic technique. Narcotic intoxication is called on
to provide an iniiMtion of a state that the shaman is no longer capable of attaining
othenvise. Decadence or (must we add?) vulgarization of a mystical technique -in
ancient and modern India, and indeed all through the East, we constantly find this
strange mixture of diflacult ways and ‘easy ways’ of realizing mystical ecstasy or
some other decisive experience.

p. 123. (French text: 202-4) Intoxication by mushrooms also produces contact with
the spirits, but in a passive and crude way. But. as we have alreaily said, this shamanic
tedim'qiie iippeurs to be late and derivath-e. Intoxication is a mechanical and corrupt
method of reproducing ‘ecstasy being ’carried out of oneself’; it tries to imitate a
model that is earlier and that belongs to another plane of reference.

pp. 220-1. (French text: 201-2) Summoned to a house, the shaman [among the
Ostyak of the Irtysh -rcw] performs fumigations and dedicates a piece of cloth to

Bernhardt Munkicsi, . Pilz’ und ‘Rausch’.; KeUii szemle. Budapest, vm. ,907. pp. 343-144. I owe
this reference to the kindness of Stig Wikander. [Vide Exhibit [31] - rcw)

2. tbid., p. 344. ■'

327

EXHIBITS

Sanke, the ce!esti.il Supreme Being.* After fasting all day. at nightfall he takes a bath,
eats three or seven mushrooms, and goes to sleep. Some hours later he suddenly
wakes and, trembling all over, communicates what the spirits, through their ‘mes-
senger’, have revealed to him: the spirit to which sacrifice must be made, the man
who made the hunt fail, and so on. The shaman then relapses into deep sleep and on
the following day the specified sacrifices are offered.*

Ecstasy through intoxication by mushrooms is known throughout Siberia. In
other parts of the world it has its counterpart in ecstasy induced by narcotics or to-
bacco, and we shall return to the problem of the mystical powers of toxins. Mean-
while, we may note anomalies in the rite just described. A piece of cloth is offer-
ed to the Supreme Being, but communication is with the spirits and it is to them
that sacrifices are offered; shamanic ecstasy proper is obtained by intoxication with
mushrooms -a method, by the way, which allows shamanesses, too, to fall into
similar trances, with the difference that they address the celestial god Sanke directly.
These contradictions show that there is a certain hybridism in the ideology under-
lying these techniques of ecstasy. As Karjalainen already observed,^ tfiis type of Ugrian
shamanism appears to be comparatively recent and derivative.

Today Professor Eliade enjoys renown and his word carries weight in
certain circles interested in the origin and histor)' of religions, and since he
seems to hold the view that the use of divine inebriants is probably a ‘recent
phenomenon' among shamans, or at least among Siberian shamans, a few
words of comment on his treatment of this vital aspect of his subject seems
called for. As we have seen on pp. 165 ff, there is valid linguistic evidence that
the use of inebriating mushrooms in Siberia goes back to the Uralic period,
at a time when the Ob-Ugrian and the Samoyed languages had not yet
evolved out of their mother Uralic tongue, more than 6000 years ago.
Professor Eliade does not tell us what he means by the term recent phe-
nomenon’, but presumably he would not carry shamanic inebriation back
more than, say, five centuries. The linguistic evidence seems to contradict
his conclusions, and there is no evidence supporting them.

I. We have presented the quotations from Professor Eliade s books in
their inverse order, the last one first, with deliberate intent, to reveal a trait
of his thinking.

I. The original meaning of iinke was Tuminous. shining, light’. (K.F. Karjalainen: Die Religion der

L^bid., ni, 306 . A similar custom is attested among the Tsingala (Ostyak). Sacrifices
Sanke, the shaman eats three mushrooms and falls into a trance. S amanessM
methods: achieving ecstasy by mushroom intoxication, they visit S^ e
which they reveal what they have learned from the Supreme Being himself {tbid.. p. 3 7).

Jochelson, The Koryak, n. 58I-583-

3. ibid: III, 315 ff- [Vide Exhibit [16] - row]

328

1 . THE FLY'ACARIC IN SIBERIA

The cxtr.ict that we have quoted from his book on ^ oga gives no source or
authority for his statements, not even himself. He speaks ex cut/iedru. The
reader is not told where one may consult the ‘shamanic myths and folklore .
nor is it clear how 'myths and folklore’ would document a decadence in
shamanism, nor do we know whom he quotes w hen he cites the ‘ ‘great
shamans of long ago’ We do not know w hy divine inebriation is a ‘(proba-
bly recent) phenomenon . That there is decadence in shamanism among
the minor nationalities ol the world is clear and sell-explanatory, as their
feeble cultures founder in the imelstrom of the modern world. It is also
true that in their disarray these peoples have taken to hard liquor. But tliis
proves nothing as to the antiquity of divine inebriation, and in particular
dis ine inebriation from the indigenous mushrooms of Siberia.

On p. 477 of Professor Eliade s book on shamanism he repeats the same
thought: the use of narcotics (tobacco, etc.) is relatively recent in the sha-
manism of the far Northeast’. He says *we have observed’ this, bv which he

• •

probably does not mean that he has observed this in the far Northeast. He
probably means that he has discussed the tnatter and arrived at a conclusion
earlier in the volume. He gives no page reference. But, contrary to what
he says, in this volume there is no discussion of inebriation in far North-
eastern shamanism. There is discussion of Ob-Ugrian shatnanism, in the far
West of Siberia.

On p. 401 Professor Eliade says: ‘We have already had occasion to note
this fact among several Siberian peoples: the use of intoxicants (alcohol.

tobacco, etc.) is a recent innovation’. We turn back, and on p. 223 he says,
'. . . as we have already said this shamanic technique appears to be late and
derivative’, referring to intoxication by mushrooms. Again we look back and
on p. 220 we find the subject mentioned once more: ‘As Karjalainen already
observed, this type of Ugrian shamanism appears to be comparatively recent
and derivative’. In the satne passage he includes this surprising phrase,
‘. . . we shall return to the mystical powers of toxins’! And so the reader has
found himself shunted back, and back, and back, and again back, only now to
be shuttled forward. His statements that the shamanic use of mushrooms is

a recent innovation stand unsupported. His reference to Karjalainen gives
him no comfort, as the reader will see from [26] where we quote in full
the relesant passage. Karjalainen is discussing the fine points of shamanic
technique. It seems that the Ostyak shamans of the Irtysh regions have re-
cently influenced the other comunities in certain particulars. Karjalainen has
nothing to say about the span of time during which the shamans have used
the fly-agaric to achieve ecstasy.

329

EXHIBITS

2. In the excerpt that we have quoted from page 400 of his work on sham-
anism. Professor Eliade makes a number of flat assertions about the etymon
of the word used among certain Finno-Ugric peoples, especially the Ob-
Ugrians, for ‘mushroom’ and ‘fly-agaric’. He says that this word is derived
from meaning ‘hemp’ (= hashish, marijuana) in Iranian. He quotes

as his authority for this derivation the Hungarian philologist Munkacsi, but
Munkacsi turns out to have been more cautious than Professor Eliade. Mun-
kacsi said in 1907 that he sees in bdnglia and in pango (1 cite only one of the
Finno-Ugric variants) the same word, and he advances the hypothesis that
the Uralic peoples took their words for inebriation from the Aryans. (We
quote Munkacsi in full in [32].) Munkacsi leaves the question open when
the borrowing took place and his wording even permits the reader to
ask whether the borrowing may not have taken place before the Aryans
emigrated to what has since been called Iran. Other philologists specializing
in the Finno-Ugric languages have been inclined to disagree with Munkacsi,
but Professor Eliade does not quote them. {Vide Lehtisalo [24a] and Balazs
[38].) Professor Eliade says, 'These facts prove that the magico-religious value
of intoxication for achieving ecstasy is of Iranian origin.’ But he has given us
no facts, he has asserted as facts what is his own philological speculation,
and from these speculative remarks he has gone on to draw religious
conclusions that are non-sequiturs.

Apparently the Iranian sources offer no support to Professor Eliade’s case.
His Shamanism appeared in French in 1951. In the same year the Oxford
University Press brought out Professor Walter B. Henning’s Ratanbai Katrak
Lectures delivered in 1949 under the title Zoroaster: Politician or Witch Doctor!
At the end of his second lecture this eminent Iranian scholar found that the
inebriating derivatives of hemp were unknown in Iran before the nth
century at the earliest, that the Persian word bang in the sense of ‘Indian hemp
is a borrowing from India, that in Iran this Indian word collided with a
homonym bang, a word used in Iran since Avestan times for a number of
Hyoscyamus species (the English ‘henbane’), most or all of which are lethal.
Persian bang in the sense of ‘hemp’ appears for the first time in medical
writings of the 13th century. It is surprising that the English edition of
S/jamnnism appeared in 1964 without taking into account the discoveries made
since the first edition.

Even without the evidence that Professor Henning adduces, an Ob-Ugnan
borrowing of the name for the fly-agaric from Iran in the recent past, as
Professor Eliade alleges, is on its face unlikely. Are we to suppose, contrary
to all probability, that the tribesmen discovered only late in the day the
peculiar inebriating virtue of the familiar fly-agaric, and that having is

330

I. THH FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

covered it they crossed rivers and mountains to reach the distant Iranian
plateau where it does not grow, and there borrowed the name of anothei
plant that outwardly does not resemble it in the slightest, and brought the
name home, and that thereafter everyone called the spectacular mushroom
by a new, foreign name?

Professor Hliade suggests that the Ob-Ugrian shamanic practices may have
been borrowed from Iran along with the word. But the use of the mushroom
is certainly indigenous. A role lor inebriants in shamanism, including hallu-
cinogenic mushrooms, has sprung up spontaneously in many unrelated
parts of the New and the Old Worlds. There is every reason to think that the
inebriating mushroom in its religious role is millennia old, long ouidating
the emigration of the Aryans to the Iranian plateau.

Professor Fdiadc then gives expression to his feelings about the shamanic
use of inebriants;

Narcotics are only a vulgar substitute for ‘pure’ trance. We have already
had occasion to note this fact among several Siberian peoples; the use ot
into.xicanis (alcohol, tobacco, etc.) is a recent innovation and points to a deca-
dence in shamanic technique. Narcotic intoxication is called on to provide an
imitatieii of a state that the shaman is no longer capable of attaining otherwise.

His preference on moral grounds for other techniques to attain ecstasy has
art'ected his critical faculty when he discusses what is purely an historical
question: how old is ntushrooni inebriation?

3. Professor Eliade lumps all inebriants together. Here is his habitual way
of referring to them, as quoted from his books;

. . . intoxication by drugs (hemp, mushrooms, tobacco, etc.)

-(from Yoga: ItnutorlalUy ami FreeJotn)

... the use of narcotics (toKicco, etc.)

- (from 5 li<im<iiiis>n, p. 477)

. . . the use of intoxicants (alcohol, tobacco, etc.)

-(from S/iii»i<Jnisin, p. 4ot)

For the modem toxicologist this lumping together of diverse psychotropic
drugs, obliterating the enormous differences among them, is crude. Let the
reader note the catch-all expression, ‘etc.’. Professor Eliade does not even
take the first step, which is to distinguish between fermented drinks and
distilled alcohol. Apparently his translator ignores the difference between
the French alcool. which is limited to the distillate, and the English 'alcohol’,
which also embraces fermented beverages such as beer and wine. The

331

EXHIBITS

discovery of the distillation technique was a sensational development in the
^ * never adequately documented and commented

on. The technique of distilling potable alcohol seems to have been devised
only once, by the school of Salerno, in about A. D. iioo.‘ (‘Alcohol* is an
Arabic word but in Arabic it meant ‘mascara’.) After leading an obscure
existence for some centuries in alchemical laboratories and monastic es-
tablishments, it leapt into prominence and importance in the i6th century.
Schiibeler [42] says that brandy (i.e., ‘burnt wine’) first became known in
Norway in 1531. In England it seems not to have been widely known as late
as A. D. 1530 but by 1550 it was cheap. It was everywhere called aqua vitae,
the water of life. In Russia the sources say that the art of distilling penetrated
to Moscow through the Black Sea route, perhaps brought from Italy by
Italian merchants, in the early i6th century. Sigismund von Herberstein on a
diplomatic mission to Muscovy describing a banquet in the Kremlin* in
1526 says:

... At length, the servers going out for food . . . first brought in aqua viiae,

which they always drink at the commencement of dinner.

Yermak’s invasion of Siberia in 1580 marked the beginning of the conquest
of that land, and it is probable that hard liquor became known to the
tribesmen through the Russians. Has hard liquor ever played a role in the
religious life of any people? The outlying races of the world may have tried
it out in recent centuries sporadically and spasmodically, but Professor Eliade
is right in saying that its use in shamanism marks the dying phase in the
indigenous religious life of the Siberians.

Tobacco was a gift of the New World to the Old. In the American Indian
cultures it was (and still is) a holy plant used in the religious life of the Indians
and on other solemn occasions. Among Europeans and their descendants
elsew'hcre it became a habit and an addiction but played no role in religion.
But after tobacco reached Siberia, probably also in the latter part of the i6th
century or at the latest in the 17th century, it is astonishing how quickly the
tribesmen adapted it to shamanism, thus recapturing for it the religious
meaning that it has always had for the American Indians. This religious
connotation was seized upon and quickly integrated into the ways of com-

1, V'iWe R. J. Forbes: Short History of the Art of Distillation. Brill. Leiden. 1948. pp. 31. 88-89.

2. In the Latin text. RerHiii AfoicovitiMnini CowpnfnMrii. Bile. 1551. P- HA.ftqua v-twe appears, an in

the Italian translation. ConitnenMni della MorconVi ... Venice. 1550. foho 77 verso, ‘

Apparently from Herberstcins words the pre-prandial vodka was already in 1516 established as a
cusL. We do not know when it came to be called vodho. from vod.. an affec.ionate . ve f

•water’. (The English and Russian words arc cognate.) Already we find vodka in Kamienski Id mis

332

I. TllK FLY-ACARIC IN SIBHRIA

niunitics th.ii were in a si.ige t)t their cultural evolution similar to the Amei i-
can Indians’ when these were lirst seen by Huropeans. Let it be noted that
tobacco became adapted to Siberian Shamanism without the iniluence ol the
American Indian cultures. Here lies a wholesome object lesson for those
who would lightlv draw inferences ol trans-Racific contacts merely on the
strength of parallel usages.

When Professor Bliade lumps the fly-agaric with hard liejuor and tobacco,
he is committing an anachronism, l-le forgets that the fly-agaric is indigenous
to the forests of Siberia and that, for the cater, the effects arc utterly different
from hard liquor. He says that narcotics are only a vulgar substitute for
‘ pure ’ trance.’ Would he have said this in 1951 about the Soma that inspired
the hymns of the Rg\ eda? We know incomparably more about the world
of psychotropic drugs than was known even as late as 1951, when Professor
Hliade’s work on shamanism was first published. The abuses of these drugs
by unbalanced or childish people that arc reported in the press do not
speak for their use. The West is on the threshold of penetrating their
secrets. There is an une.xplored world before us, and we should not pre-
judge it.

All over the world, wherever anthropologists ha\e been making their
way, they have been finding the native peoples utilizing as shamanic ine-
briants natural plant products. W’ith astonishing resourcefulness untutored
folk, or rather their herbalists, in ages past discovered these 'drugs’, as we
call them, and how best to prepare them for medico-religious ends. The
plants themselves and the methods of treating them are often secrets of the

shaman, not to be had for the asking. Sometimes the inquirer is initiated into
the mystery, only to suspect that he has not been told the full story. In this
book we present the testimony of many witnesses on the use of the fly-agaric-
in Siberian shamanism. But Kannisto [33] tells us e.xpressly that mushrooms
in addition to the fly-agaric serve the same purpose in the Vogul area, a
remarkable fact confirmed for the Chukotka by Ivan Lopatin. In the Vogul
case the deficiency in our knowledge is attributable rather to the lack of zeal
in the searchers than to concealment by the natives. To this day no one in
the Western world can tell us what those other mushrooms are. The ine-
briants used in food-gathering communities seem to be myriad, their use
going back to pre-history. Each presents a problem to our biochemists and
pharmacologists, whose abilities are taxed to isolate the active agents, to
describe their molecular structure, to synthesize them, and to explore their
potentialities.

The thinking of the West is obsessed with alcohol as the sole inebriani:
we down-grade and ignore the natural intoxicants that primitive man disco-

333

EXHIBITS

vered long ago by himself: we are loath, we seem to be afraid, to discover
their possibilities. The distillate of alcohol -what the French call Tfllcool-is
a late comer on the stage of history, but in the perspective of the past of
homo sapiens even fermented drinks are relatively recent. It is hard to see
how the peoples of Siberia could have mastered the art of fermentation before
they acquired the technique of making pottery or wineskins. Even today in
the tropics there are primitive peoples (such as the Kuma of New Guinea)
who did not know fermented drinks until the white man brought them in.
It is significant that the Uralic word for ‘inebriation’ is taken from the name
for the fly-agaric: in the sequence of history the food-gatherers must have
discovered the natural inebriants long before they learned the art, tricky
for those w'ho performed it first, of fermentation.

Brekhman, I. I., and Sem, Y. A. ‘Ethno-pharmacological Investigation
of some Drugs of Siberian and Far-Eastern Minor Nationalities.’
Paper submitted to the Symposium on the Ethnopharmacologic
Search for Psycho-active Drugs held at the University of California,
San Francisco Medical Center, on January 28-30, 1967.

[This paper by two Soviet scientists based in Vladivostok is of interest for
the information that it contains and also because it is, I think, the first utter-
ance out of the U.S.S.R. on the use of the fly-agaric among the Siberian
tribesmen. The attitude of the Soviet Union toward this practice finds expres-
sion in the concluding paragraphs of the paper. It will be observed that they
do not write from personal experience: they rely almost entirely on what
Krasheninnikov [4] wrote more than two centuries ago - a source superseded
by many others today. - rgw]

Various narcotics and stimulants had been used as intoxicating liquors or
in popular medicine by the minor nationalities of Siberia and the Far East.
Appertaining to them is the use of fly-agaric, tobacco, and its substitutes,

alcoholic drinks, root of ginseng, young antlers of the maral, etc.

Fly-agaric {Amanita muscaria) had been used mostly by the palsoasiatic
peoples of Kamchatka and Chukotka (Itelmen, Koryak. Chukchi. Yukagir).
The use of fly-agaric on a vast scale was unknown to all the Tungus worl .
To it belong Evenki. Eveni. Udegay. Neguidaltsi, Nanai. Ujchi, Orochi Solon
Manchu, Oroki; and of the palteoasiatic peoples, the Nivkhi [Gilyak] of the

Amur and Sakhalin.

334

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

Flv-agaric had been used with aims of: i) merry-making. 2) overcoming
certain difficulties. 3) instilling one’s nerve in the time of inier-tribal clashes
.nnd wars, and 4) during a performance of rituals. Stepan Krasheninnikov.
one of the first explorers of Kamchatka and its population, thus described the
use of fly-agaric by the Itelmen (Kamchadal) and Koryak; 'For good cheer
they at times use fly-agaric, too, that is familiar among us; herewith we
exterminate flies’. At some other place he remarks that Kamchadal and
sedentary Koryak eat fly-agaric when they design to kill some one’.^

There were known two ways of the use of fly-agaric, in its natural state and
in the way of infusion. Fly-agaric was picked in spring, in summer, not often
in autumn. For the use of fly-agaric in its natural state the gathered fungi
were kept in a dry cool place and were slightly desiccated. 'As need be’,
wrote S. Krasheninnikov, ‘dry mushrooms when rolled are swallowed whole,
the which way is in great usage’. For making an infusion the caps of the fungi
were soaked in water. .After 5-6 days the infusion could be used.^ More
drastic was an infusion of fly-agaric in willow-weed wash. They prepared the
latter from willow-weed (Epilehiiim ungHStj/ohum L) having boiled it down to a
sweet and thick wash. In days of old fly-agaric had been used in Siberia and
Kamchatka for a homebrew or added to underproof vodka, which led to
intense excitement frequently ending in murder or suicide and now and again
in death as a result of poisoning.'-*

A twofold use of fly-agaric and its infusion was known to the minor na-
tionalities of North-East of Asia - the so-called 'moderate' and ‘immoderate’.
The Itelmen [Kamchadal] themselves considered the use of the fungus up to
four mushrooms at a time as moderate, which contributed to an increase of
organism resistance to fatigue, took off weariness, acted tonically. After such
an application, wrote S. P. Krasheninnikov, ‘they feel within themselves
extraordinary ease, mirth, valour and nerve’.

After an immoderate use. from 5 to 10 fungi at a time, would come a
second stage of fly-agaric effect which was accompanied by intoxication and
hallucinations. S. P. Krasheninnikov.* who observed in person the effect of
fly-agaric on Itelmen and Kamchadal. wrote: ‘The first and usual sign where-
upon ye can apprize of a person being wrought up with the mushroom is a
twitch of limbs which would come in an hour or less, thereafter the drunk
rave as in a fever; and they dream apparitions, ugly or cheery, as their temper
be: from this cause some go a-hopping and some a-dancing, all being in
great horror. To some, a slit taketh a view of a big door and a spoon of water
of a sea . . . But this needs must be thought of those that use it beyond meas-
ure . The use of more than 10 fungi at a time led to a fatal end.

The second stage of intoxication was, probably, accompanied by a tem-

335

EXHIBITS

porary partial paralysis and exuberant hallucinations, by involuntary actions.
‘All their actions are so harmful that of persons left heedless scarcely any
would escape with life.’ During S. P. Krasheninnikov’s stay in Kamchatka the
Cossacks and Russian servants of government also acquired from the Itelmen
the habit of fly-agaric use with the aim of intoxication. It served them as a
substitute for alcohol. Its effect was known among the inhabitants of Kam-
chatka as extravagancies , visions of infernal regions and fire-spitting abyss’,
and an inclination to confess one’s sins; attempts at suicide, etc.

Everybody addicted to fly-agaric accounted for his actions as if they had
been in obedience to the order of Omnipotent Mushroom. In the opinion of
the Chukchi ‘inebriant mushrooms are a special tribe (anra-varat). They arc
strong and when growing they break through thick roots of trees and
dissect them into halves with their sturdy heads. They shoot through stones
and crush them to bits. Fly-agaric appears to drunken men in a shape
strange and man-like. Thus a certain mushroom appeared in the shape
of a single-armed and single-legged man, and another was like a stump.
They are not ghosts, they are mushrooms themselves. Their number seen
by a man corresponds to the number of fungi eaten by a man. If a man ate
one mushroom, he would see one man-mushroom; if he ate two or three,
then he would see their respective number. The mushrooms take a man by
the hand and lead him to the other world, they show him all that is there,
make him do all kinds of unbelievable things. The ways of mushrooms are
tortuous. They visit the land where the dead live.’*

The effect of the fly-agaric continued until the products were evacuated
from the system of a man. Even the urine of this man would have an inebriat-
ing effect. ‘With sedentar)' Koryaks the fungus is in so high esteem , wrote
S. P. Krasheninnikov, ‘that a drunken man is not allowed to pass water on the
floor, but they put a vessel before him, and his urine they drink and run mad
like those that had eaten the mushroom’.

By the customary law of the minor nationalities of Chukotka and Kam-
chatka the use of fly-agaric was permitted only to men. Its use by women was
prohibited.

Interesting are observations of fly-agaric action on deer, they after eating
fbngi and the following violent excitement fall into a deep sleep: the meat of
such deer, the Koiy'ak vouched, acted on a man inebriatingly.*

The northern group of nationalities. espedaUy the Itelmen of Kamchatka,
had had another stimulant - wine from sweet herb . The secret of its pro
duction passed from them to Russian Cossacks and sedentary Kory as in
the i6th and 17th centuries. For making wine Itelmens used the ‘sweet her
Heracleum duke Fisch. sem. Umhellifer<e). For making grass sugar and wine

336

I. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SIBERIA

were used young spring stems, \\ hich were usually gathered by women. To
avoid the influence of the poisonous juice of the plant they put on gloves. The
stored bunches of stems were put in grass bags and kept there until sugar
was educed on the stems. Grass sugar was used for making various kinds of
Itelmcn dainties, beverage, etc.

Sometimes the ‘sweet herb’ w as eaten, like betel, in its fresh natural state.
The eflect of its chewing was similar to that of alcoholic intoxication. The
‘sweet herb’ was mostly used for making wine. First was made wine dough.
For this aim the ‘sweet herb’ was put in warm water and leavened with
honeysuckle or bog bilberry. The mixture prepared thus was kept in warmth,
which contributed to fermentation. As soon as fermentation ceased the wine
dough was considered to be ready. Usually, this required about a day. For
making wine the ‘sweet herb' now in a large quantity was soaked in warnt
water and leavened with dough, and in a day they began distillation. At first,
as S. P. Krasheninnikov notes, comes wine of proof similar to that of vodka,
then comes a softer wine. The strength of vodka is such that it is possible to
mordant even iron. Itelmens attest that this wine ‘presses on the heart very
much’ and ‘decreases sex appeaT.

G. V. Steller, another explorer of Katnchatka, thus described the effect of
‘herbal wine’: '. . . whosoever partaketh of it but a few goblets he is harassed
by queer phantasies all night and the next day he feels melancholy just as if
he had committed some crime'.’ So the effect of the wine from the ‘sweet
herb’ was similar to that of fly-agaric in some measure.

During a shamanic rite the Nanai, Udegay, Ulchi, and Orochi used to employ
some plants that made a specific influence on the psychic state of a person,
which, probably, promoted to an arrival of mass hypnosis so needed during
a rite. Usually it was the leaves of Ledum, which passed under the name
of'senkura’ with the Nanai, ‘sengkuro’ with the Ulchi, ‘sengkia’ with the
Udegay. ‘synkiu ’with the Orochi, etc. They used to employ Ledum palustre
L and Ledum hypoleucum Kom. The desiccated leaves stored beforehand
were put on the hearth or on a frying pan. A strong active smell in a small
dwelling would stupefy those present at the rite. Probably, in some measure
it calmed the sick as it w'as employed at ritual exercises over the sick.

Undoubtedly, the psychoactive drugs employed by the minor nationalities
of Siberia and the Far East are not studied yet completely and require further
investigations by ethnographers and pharmacologists.

The minor nationalities of Siberia and the Far East now do not use any
psychoactive drugs, which have been relinquished because of radical changes
in economy, culture, mode of life, and ideolog}^ of the population of this part
of the Soviet Union. After the October Socialist Revolution and the establish-

337

EXHIBITS

merit of the Soviet Power these not numerous nationalities have embarked
on a new way of historical development. Formerly backward nationalities of
one of borderlands of Russia, with the help of the Russian people and Soviet
Power, passing through intermediate stages, they have soon reached the
socialist phase of social development.

LITERATURE USED

1. Balov, J. Poisonous fungi. Medicine Gazette No 40, 1428, 1912.

2 . Bogoraz, V. G. The Chukchi. Part 2. Religion. Authorized translation from Eng-
lish. Glavsevmorput Publishing Co., Leningrad, 1939.

3. Krasheninnikov, S. P. Description of the land of Kamchatka, V0I.2. St Petersburg,

1775.

4. Orlov, N. I. Edible and poisonous mushrooms. Medguiz Publishing Co., 1953.

5. Tikho.mirov, V. A. Edible and poisonous mushrooms. Moscow, 1879.

338

THE FLY-AGARIC IN SCANDINAVIAN WRITINGS

««•••••••••••

T ^

»«••»«••»«••» ss ;<:

•mmm

N o one who discusses the fly-agaric in Europecan ignore the debate
that has been carried on for almost two centuries in Scandinas ia
on this issue. First Samuel Odman in 17S4 and then Fredrik Christian
Schiibcler in 1886 propounded the thesis that those \ iking warriors
known as 'berserks’ ate the fly-agaric before they ‘went berserk’: in
short, that ‘berserk-raging’ was deliberately caused by the ingestion
of our spotted amanita. Apparently the argument went to Odman and
Schiibelcr by default, because today we find their thesis incorporated
in the Scandinavian cncycloptcdias and the school history books. In
fairness to them I here present in full what they said in presenting
their \ iews. as well as the utterances of a number of their followers,
eminent professors all ot them. I \\'ish I could agree with them.

1 add also a part of the account of a tragic episode that happened in
Hungary at the end of the second World War. in 1945, written by a
Swedish woman who was there at the time. There is in it a curious
statement about a fungal decoction said to have been used bv the
Russian troops that occupied briefly the town of Fehervar.

341

««•••••••••••

T ^

»«••»«••»«••» ss ;<:

•mmm

[ 43 ]

Odman. Samuel. ‘Forsok. at utur Naturcns Historia forklara de
nordiska gamla Klimpars Berscrka-gang. (An attempt to Explain
the Berserk-raging of Ancient Nordic Warriors through Natural
HLstorv) Nya Handlingar. published by the Kungliga \'etenskaps
Akademien. \'ol. 5. Stockholm. 1784- pp- 240-247-

In the oldest chronicles of our country we not infrequently cotne across
incidents which, for want of a knowledge of natural history, arc cither ex-
plained quite erroneously or risk being relegated, through the injustice ot the
scholar, to the myths of the dark ages. I am sure that I am not mistaken if I
include in this category the accounts, preserved in the old Norse Sagas,
concerning the Berserf’s of ancient times, and the celebrated frenzies which,
under the name of Berserfca-gang (Going Berserk), are described in such
curious wise.

It is not for me, nor is this the place, to discuss these prodigies of History at
length. A brief outline will suffice to pave the way for the present enquire.

These warriors, according to the military thinking of their times necessary
adjuncts for the aims of their warlords, but also often feared by the Prince in
whose service they were employed, are depicted more as wild beasts than
human beings. As soon as the Berserk-fury came over them, they were seen
to rage like ravening wolves, recoiling from neither fire nor iron, braving the
direst perils, rushing at the most redoubtable enemy, biting their own
shields, etc., or, if no enemy were at hand, venting their fury on inanimate
objects, uprooting trees, overturning rocks, and in their exalted state scarcely
distinguishing friend from foe. King H.^lfd.-vn’s Berserks are portrayed in
Hrolf’s Saga in the following interesting manner: ‘On these warriors’, the
account reads, ‘there at times fell such a fur}- that they could not control
themselves but slaughtered man and beast, and all that stood in their way
and minded not what they did. While this fury lasted they stopped at noth-
ing; but when it left thent they were so powerless that they did not have half
of their normal strength, and were as weak as if they had just recovered from
some sickness, and this fur>’ lasted about one day.’ An illuminating example
of this is also given in Hervarar Saga, at the battle that took place at Samsey.

The respect shown towards these heroes was always mingled with a sort of
secret hatred, even in heathen times, for which their arrogance no doubt
gave good cause. With the peaceful principles that the first Christian
preachers tried to instil in the Barbarians of the north, the Berserks soon lost
all their prestige, as an alleged connection with the devil caused their skill

343

EXHIBITS

and their trade to be viewed with even greater horror. To be sure, fighting
did not cease altogether, but the difference in attitude made it no longer
permissible to use such sinister aids for the purpose. So the science died out
with its practitioners; for a long time no further clue to the mystery was
sought other than ascribing it to the assistance and co-operation of unclean
spirits, so that not only did Prof. Verelius call it a diabolical art,' but even in
this century two dissertations published at Uppsala propounded the same
theory,* probably because the no doubt exaggerated accounts of these
fighters which have been handed down to us, have been taken all too
literally.

I am not of the opinion that these transports should be viewed solely as the
effect of some special quality of temperament whereby such extraordinary
motions can be induced by a mind in a state of violent ferment for, although
we are not entirely without examples which could support such an as-
sumption, the persons who suffer from such afflictions, between paroxysms,
are not able to maintain the defiant arrogance which made the Berserks so
hated even in times of peace. On the other hand, since the Plant-kingdom
affords several means of creating such disorder in the mind and inducing the
most frenzied attacks of folly, I am inclined to believe that the Berserks knew
of some such intoxicating substance which they used when occasion demanded
and which they kept as a secret among themselves so that their prestige with
the public would not be diminished on account of the simplicity of the means
employed.

That Opium could produce exactly the same effects is a matter of common
knowledge. What we are told on this subject about the inhabitants of the
island of Celebes and their opium-induced frenzies when they go to battle
matches in every detail the accounts of the Norse Berserks of old. Kempfer’S
reports of the frenzies which were common practice in his day, in Java, and
went by the name of Hamuk,^ so strongly support the possibility that opium
could turn people into Berserks, that the testimony of Alpinus can very well
be omitted.-* But since as yet no voyage to the Levant could have taught our
ancestors this means: since as yet no Allen or Dillenius had discovere ow

1. Episc. Dedicawria Hist, pra^a. .

2. One by Mr. HAhtNELL in 1709. De Magia Hyperborecrum who. on page 42. sugg«

probably brcughi on by the devil: the other by Mr.
on page regrets that « he have liked to oeqait the Berserks o/the eharge 0/ dealing

the devil, he dare not take up their defence in the matt^. exasperatur, turbatur

3. Am. E«or. F.sc, 3. p. 649. s. Opii deglu.iunt bolum. quo

ratio, et infraaius redditur animus, adco ut stricto pugione, mstar ign
excurrant, obvios quosvis, sive amicos. sivc inimicos tniddaiuri.

4. de Med. Aeg. page ut.

344

II. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SCANDINAVIA

10 prepare opium from ihe poppy-buds of Europe, and there is still less reason
to conclude that such attempts could have been thought ot at that time in
S\\ eden. although they subsequently succeeded in the case of Lindestolpe.
one cannot reasonably trace Berserk frenzies to this intoxicating resin.

If .Urepu Bc’ll.i Demui u ere indigenous to our northern climes, the example'
given by .Mr. Gmelin the younger would throw considerable light on the
question of Berserks. The same applies to several intoxicating substances
found in India.*

.•\ suitable preparation could also be made from the Hemp leal, which
would be sufficient to bring on this periodic bout of frenzy.’ But since it is not
vet certain whether the hemp of our climate corresponds to the southern
\arietv which gives the Persians, Indians and Egyptians their Bangve. whose
intoxicating properties have alreadv been noted by G.ale.no, and of which the
Turks still use a mixture to strengthen their tobacco, according to Dr.
Ri ssel’s observations.* like the ancient Scythians who, according to Herodo-
Ti s, w ere made giddy in the head from the smoke of its seeds, thrown on hot
stones, and as it is also certain that this East Indian plant was not known in the
North at such an early period, there is no likelihood that it could have been
used for this purpose.

Of those native plants of ours which might be considered in this connection,
several are known to have some intoxicating properties, although not in
sufficient degree to warrant attention, such as Cru»ibe judritiwii, LoIiuhi tre-
JHif/enium and others ot which either a large dose is required to obtain such a
powerful effect or whose influence is more likely to have rendered the Ber-
serks incapable ot committing the excesses ascribed to them in as much as,
having a more soporific etTect, they bring on drowsiness and apathy. Datum
sfraHiomuHi should also merit special consideration as its properties, which are
not unknown to our Physicians, have been the subject of new studies by the
same Mr. G.melin.*

Of all Swedish plants, however. I consider the Fly-.'\garic. Agaricu.s Jiiuscarius.
to be the one w hich really solves the mystery of the Berserks. Its use is so
widespread in Northern Asia that there are hardly any nomadic tribes there
that do not use it in order to deprive themselves of their feelings and senses
that they may enjoy the animal pleasure of escaping the salutary bonds of

1. Russian Journey. \ ol. 3, p. 361. 15 grains in wine made a Persian soldier lighi-hcadcd.

2. Diss. Linn. Inebriantia. S. y

3. Alpin. ic. p. 121. Kemph. Tc. p. 645.

4* Nai. Hist, of Aleppo, page 83.

5. Gmelin J.f. Tom. i. p. 43. A man who gathered the seeds of Datura at X oronezh was asked what
he used them for. and repUed that one put them in beer to make the intoxication greater.

345

EXHIBITS

reason. The Ostyaks. the Samoycd, the Yukagir and others use it daily, and
the Clinfec/ii whose rigorous ic\- climate does not produce this mushroom,
obtain it by bartering their reindeer, which are their most valuable possession.
The dose of this poisonous substance is from i to 4 mushrooms, according to
size. The Ostyaks can only tolerate one. or use a decoction of 3.’ The Kamcha-
dal drink it with a decoction of Epilohium.* Those who use this mushroom
first become meny, so that they sing, shout, etc., then it attacks the functions
of the brain and they have the sensation of becoming veiy big and strong: the
frenzy increases and is accompanied by unusual energ)- and convulsive
movements. The sober persons in their company often have to watch them to
see that they do no violence to themselves or others. The raving lasts 12 hours,
more or less. Then lassitude sets in, culminating in complete exhaustion
and sleep. Steller^ reports the curious fact that the urine of persons under
the influence of this mushroom possesses the same intoxicating properties.
And that the Tungus Shamans, in the ceremonial use of their so-called magic
drum, are accustomed to swallow a goodly draught of this urine so as to be
able to fall into the epilepsy or ecstatic trance proper to this ceremony has
been attested by Mr. Georgi*. with several pertinent comments, in his
description of the peoples under the Russian Imperial Government. T. n,
pages 329. 336.

What seems to me to point particularly to the Fly-Agaric in this case is the
fact that its use is a custom from the part of Asia whence Odin, with his
Aesir, made his celebrated migration to our North. For although the distiller s
art subsequently devised a short cut to this ignominious abuse, and the use of
the mushroom accordingly ceased in the region of the Danube, it none the
less spread from that point with the northward-migrating Hordes, which
still used it. And that the histor)' of the Berserks in our North begins with
the arrival of Odin, 1 find not only accepted by those who have produced all
possible evidence from the dark annals of antiquity, but also consistent with
the designs of a warlord who with a dozen raving men could make himself
so feared and secure among alien tribes. The honour other warriors uon
for themselves by slaying a Berserk, whom they looked upon as a malefactor,
seems to prove that the custom was not a native one. And as this mushroom,
like similar substances, prematurely emaciates the human body and makes
it insensitive and clumsy, it may have had the effect of inculcating Odin s
principle of going to Valhalla in good time, through a voluntary death, over
the precipice, so that the honour of the proven hero might not be dimme .

1. Vide Gcorgi [6] - RCW.

2. Vide Krasheninnikov {4] - Rcw.

Vide Stellcr [5] - rcw.

346

II. THE FLY-AGARIC IN SCANDINAVIA

especially as scatecraft demanded that a Berserk, as the foremost miliiia-man.
should be regarded as invincible.

[In Odman’s account I have printed in italic the crucial sentence, the
source of much misunderstanding. (Morner (asl relies on it, quoting it in full.)
Here it is:

The sober persons in their company [i.e., those who have taken
the fly-agaric - rgw] often have to watch them to see that they do
no injury to themselves or others.

This statement is unjustified. A careful reading of our many Exhibits fails to
disclose a single case where a Siberian tribesman under the influence of the
fly-agaric threatened either himself or others with injury. On the contrary, the
effect is to calm the subject, to put him into a benign mood. Nor is there any
reason to believe that this is a question of dosage. Members of the lower
orders of the Riissium community, discovering in the i8th century a surprising
new inebriant and jumping to the conclusion that it must be similar to
vodka but even more extraordinary, threaten themselves with injury when
under its influence (\'ide (4], p. 236: [loj, p. 249), but the attentive reader will
note with a weary smile that, like the tiresome exhibitionists whom we have
all known, in every case the inebriated itian always takes care to have a
friend at hand to arrest his hand. The one case in the Russian community of
a suicide [4] is only hearsay, as Krasheninnikov takes pains to make clear.
We may all suspect what that means in the context of the people Krashenin-
nikov was dealing with. He says the natives take the fly-agaric before going
out to kill someone but he gives no support for his statement. He did not
know the native language and he relied largely on Russian informants. His
own colleague Steller does not repeat this, and the many later observers who
knew the country from long experience, some of them professional linguists
speaking the local languages, fail to confirm it. Krasheninnikov was an astute
observer trying to arrive at the facts through a screen of questionable in-
formants. He should be admired as a worthy period piece, certainly not
quoted as an authority on the fly-agaric in 1968. After all, we no longer con-
sult Benjamin Franklin or Lomonosov on physics, great and revered figures
though they be. . . . As for Odman, why should anyone cite him today’]

347

EXHIBITS

[44]

ScHUBELER, Frcdfik Christian. Viridarium Norvegicum I. Norway.
1886. pp. 224-226.

[After identifying Amanita miiscaria by the various vernacular names current
in the chief countries of western Europe, our author, the Norwegian botanist,
continues: - rgw]

In old Norwegian historical writings there are many references to the fact
that in olden times there was a particular type of warrior known as Berserkers,
i.e., men who at times were seized by a wild fury which temporarily doubled
their strength and made them oblivious to bodily pain, but at the same time
numbed all humanity and reason and made them resemble wild beasts. This
rage, which was called Berserksgang, occurred not only in the heat of battle
but also in the course of strenuous work, so that those who were possessed
by it accomplished things that otherwise would appear beyond human
strength.* This condition is said to have begun with trembling, chattering of
the teeth and a sensation of cold, after which the face swelled up and changed
colour. Along with this went a fierce passion, growing into a positive fury,
during which they howled like wild beasts, bit the edges of their shields, and
hewed down everything that came in their way without distinction of friend
and foe. When the attack had passed it was followed by an intense apathy
and lack of energy, which might last for a day or more.*

Even while I was a medical student, and later as a practising doctor, I had a
special predilection for toxicology, and particularly the poisons that come
from the vegetable world. I have a lively recollection that all that long time
ago by comparing all the symptoms that appeared during the so-called
Berserksgang, I came to the conclusion that this paroxysm could scarcely be
anything else than a kind of intoxication, the symptoms of which closely
resembled the effects of Amanita muscaria. When one compares with this
the descriptions by Krascheninnikov, Steller, and Erman of the symptom
seen in the state of intoxication reached by the Kamchadals and other peoples
of north-east Asia after partaking of fly amanita, then the correspondence is
so unmistakable that my previous hypothesis has all the appearance of fact.
Some time after I had reached this stage, I discovered by serendipity that
the Swedish Professor Samuel Odman expressed the same opinion a hundred

1. Eyrbyggja Saga 28. Landnamabdk in. 20. P. A. Munch. The History of the Nonvegian People.

Christiania. t85i-63- Part i. V0I.2, pp. lya-S-

2. R. Keyscr. Collected Works. Christiania, 1868, p. 355 S’-

348

II. THH FLV-AGARIC IN SCANDINA\ IA

ycjrs ago. though without offering any special evidence tor the rightness of
the theory.'

The reports given by the above-mentioned Russian authors may be sum-
marised thus;* since the Kamchadals came into closer contact with the
Russians they have begun to drink brandy, and to leave the use of fly amanita
to their nomadic neighbours the Koryaks, for whom they now collect the
fungi, which can profitably be e.\changed for reindeer. -The first symptoms
to appear in one who has drunk a liqueur made Irom lly amanita and the
juice of fipi/oi'ium ungHSti/oIjiim are: a characteristic trembling in every limb:
half .m hour later he begins to r.tge. and according to his temperament he
then becomes either merry or morose. - The drunkenness has. in tact, a
certain resemblance to that caused bv wine or brandy, in that the drunken
person, being more or less unconscious, almost invariably grows jolly and
only rarely morose. The face becomes red and swollen, as it from e.xtrava-
sated blood, and the drunken men now begin to say and do many involuntary
things. - Those who are only mildly afi'ected feel themselves very light of
foot and appear inclined to all kinds of bodily activity. The slightest irritation
has an unduly strong effect on nerves rendered abnormally sensitive. Some
display a mu.scular strength which in normal conditions would be impossible.
Eye-witnesses have reported that a person who ordinarily would have great
difficulty in even lifting such a load, has carried a sack of flour weighing 120
pounds a distance of 15 versts (10 miles). - ‘The Kamchadals also confirmed
what I had already been told in Tigilisk (Ust Tigi!) about the intoxicating
property of fly amanita, and assured me further that it is not eaten in Sedanka,
but only collected for the Koryaks, who in winter will often give a reindeer
for a single specimen.’^ -‘The fly amanita (Muchamor) is very rare in the
northern part of Kamchatka, and the Koryaks first learned its properties from
the fact that the flesh of a reindeer that h.id eaten this fungus had Just as
intoxicating an effect as the plant itself. From the experience thus gained,
instinct gradually taught them to enjoy the delights of this precious ware in
the most economical way, by keeping the urine of a person intoxicated with
fly amanita and later using it as a very effective intoxicant.’ - ‘As an example

1. Kongl. Vecenskaps Acadcmincs nya Handlingar (Royal Scicmitic Academy's Recent Proceedings).
Vol. 5. 1874. p. 240 0 *.

2. Cf. Emile Boudicr. Die Pil^e in ak^nemischer, chcmischcr wnd tv'arr lonelier Uinsicht. Uebertragen
und mit Anmerkungen versehen von (The economic, chemical and toxicological aspects of fungi.
Translated and annotated by) Dr. Th. Husemann. Berlin 1807. p. 118 ff,

3 George Kennan says that in spite of the fact that the Russian Government has forbidden the sale
of fly amanita to the Koryaks, this trade still flourishes. He has. in fact, himself witnessed that a single
specimen has been exchanged for furs to a value of 20 dollars. (George Kennan, Tent Life in SiKrn.i.
London, 1871. p. 139).

349

EXHIBITS

of the striking increase in muscular power, a man related that when he had
swallowed a portion of fly amanita in the morning he could work without
difficulty during the hay-making season from morning to night, and ac-
complish as much as would othenvise require three men.’

Our celebrated historian P. A. Munch is of the opinion that the Berserksgang
was nothing but ‘a periodically returning madness’.' I cannot share his view,
but insist that the berserksgang was induced by some stimulant or other!
and specifically by the fly amanita. The probability that this is so is greatly
strengthened by the fact that the symptoms described above, both of Ber-
serksgang in Norway and of the effects of fly amanita in Kamchatka, are
presented with an accuracy as congruent as if they were written by a keen-
witted doctor familiar with all kinds of sickness. Moreover the most peculiar
symptoms that accompanied Berserksgang were always repeated in the same
form, and the whole thing ceased some time after the introduction of Chris-
tianity (about A. D. looo) had brought a purer ethical standard. It is true
that Berserksgang was regarded, both by those who suffered from it and by
onlookers, at times at least, as so great an infliction that even the Icelander
Thorstein Ingemundson made a vow to the Gods in order to free his brother
Thorer from this misfortune (Utimi).* This may, however, also be explained
by saying that Thorer in his better moments may have recognised his deplor-
able condition, but that he found it just as difficult to break free from it as
those who now drug themselves with opium or hashish, or even those who
have succumbed to an excessive consumption of spirits.

Here may be mentioned also what is related (in the Droplaugar sona-saga
p. 3) of the Icelander Thrj'mketil;* but according to what Professor Konrad
Maurer of Munich has told me personally, this account is nothing but an
addition which an Icelander in the latter half of the last century wove into
the Saga.

And if, as appears to me to be established beyond doubt, use was made of
some stimulant or other, this cannot have been either beer, mead, wine or
brandy, as the effect of all these is very different from what is described here.
Moreover, brandy was not known in Nonvay before 1531, when it was
called ‘Aqua vitae’.^ And, of course, there can be no question of opium or
hashish in this country so long ago. A motive for the constant use of fly

1. P. A. Munch. The History of the Nonvfgidn People. Pan i, Vol. 1, p. 790.

2. Vatnsdola Saga. Ch. 30. 37. - P. A. Munch, The History of the Norwe^an People. Pan i. Vol. i.
pp. 790 -r.

3. R. Keyser. Collected Worfa. Christiania, 1868. p. 35 ^- .

4. CoUectcd Examples for the Language and History of the Norwegian People. 2. PP-

English name 'whisky' is a corruption of the Celtic word usquebaugh , i.e., water 0 c . . •

Pav7. A Treatise on Food and Dietetics. 2nd Ed. London. 1875. P- 140)

350

II. THH ILY-AGARIC IN SCAND 1 NA\ 1 A

.ini-init.i as an intoxicant can also be found in the fact that it produces the
same phantasms and visions as hashish or opium.'

Although the old historical records do not say so. it seems reasonable to
suppose that the means that was used to induce the state in question must
have been kept a secret. The Berserkers were feared by all. and could, in a
sense, enforce whatever they wished; it is therefore in the nature of things
that they did all they could to retain this extraordinary respect trom the
common people. So the knowledge of the stimulant was probably passed on
as a secret frotn man to man. F.ven in our own time, even in our own capital,
it is well known that there are certain ‘secret’ recipes that are bequeathed
from parents to children.

The less enlightened part of the population naturally saw the Berserksgang
as a supernatural phenomenon, to be ranked with enchantment and such-
like wonders: it mav even have been believed that the Berserkers were
possessed by demons; but this cannot have been the case with well-informed
people. That even as early as the beginning of the i ith century Berserksgang

was regarded as a condition for which the sulTerers were themselves re-
sponsible is clearly indicated by the following: before Erik Jarl left Norway,
he called together in 1015 the noblemen and the most powerful peasants to
consult them about the laws and government of the kingdom. At this meeting
single combat was abolished, and Berserkers and robbers were outlawed.*
In Thorlak’s and Ketil’s Icelandic Church Law^ which was adopted in 1123 as
the law of Iceland, there appears the following passage: If any matt goes
Berserk, he is to be punished with three years’ banishment (Fjdrbaugsgar),
and the same applies to those men who are present if they do not bind him.
but if they bind hint no one shall be punished. Each repetition of the oft'ence
will he be punished.’ Any comment on this would appear to be superfluous.

[ 45 ]

Morner, Carl Th. Nagra erlarcnhetsron oni de hogre svantparna:
Kritisk otversikt. (Some observations on the higher fungi) Published
in Upsala Liikareforenings Forhandlingar, Vol. xxiv, 1-2. Upsala. 1919.

[On November i, 1918. Carl Morner read a paper on the higher fungi
before the Royal Scientific Society in Upsala. Morner was a well known pro-
fessor of physiology and an excellent amateur mycologist. In the discussion

1. Emile Boudier If., p. 114 (Husemann's annotation).
i.Grenis Saga. Ch. 19.

3. Grdgds, Finsen’s Edition. Ch. 7, pp. ii-iy

351

EXHIBITS

that followed rhe reading of his paper Professor H.Hildcbrandsson, who held
a chair in mcteorolog)-, told of an episode that had happened in 1814 when
Sweden and Norway were engaged in a short war with each other. When
Morner published his book on mushrooms in 1919 he inserted a paragraph
giving the substance of what Hildebrandsson had said. This is in the second
ot the two paragraphs that we quote from Momer’s book:-RGw]

Described in popular terms, a mild or medium-severe attack of poisoning
resembles a state of alcoholic intoxication in a person who cannot hold his
liquor. The Kamchadales. ' to quote E. Fries, ‘make an intoxicating drink
[from the fly-agaric], and it has been suggested that the fly-agaric was used in
our country in olden times to bring on the so-called berserk furies’. This last-
mentioned piece of information is obviously based on S. Odman>s 'Attempt
to Explain the Berserk Frenzies of the Old Norse Warriors on the Basis of
Natural History’ (1784), an interesting work of which a brief outline may be
given at this point. After dismissing opium, belladonna, hemp and the like as
out of the question for the North, particularly at that time. Odman expresses
the following opinion: ‘Of all Swedish plants, however, I consider the Fly-
agaric, Agariciis mnsenrius, to be the one which really solves the mystery of
the Berserks'. Explaining his reasons for this belief, he gives the following
classic description of the notorious amanita intoxication: ‘Its use is so wide-
spread in Northern Asia that there are hardly any nomadic tribes there that
do not use it in order to deprive themselves of their feelings and senses that
they may enjoy the animal pleasure of escaping the salutary bonds of reason. . . .
The dose of this poisonous substance is from i to 4 mushrooms, according to
size. . . . Those who use this mushroom first become merry, so that they sing,
shout, etc., then it attacks the functions of the brain and they have the
sensation of becoming very big and strong; the frenzy increases and is
accompanied by unusual energy and convulsive movements. The sober per-
sons in their company often have to watch them to see that they do no violence to
themselves or others. The raving lasts 12 hours, more or less. Then lassitude
sets in. culminating in complete exhaustion and sleep’.

According to the observations of an officer of the Varmland regiment,
fly-agaric was also used at a much later date in order to induce a good fighting
spirit. In the course of an advance during the 1814 war, he noticed that some
of the men were seized with frenzy and foaming at the mouth. This was
traced, on investigation, to the cause just mentioned.*

1. Other authors also mention the Koryaks. Ostiaks. Samoyedes. and Chukchi as using By-aganc for

purposes of intoxication. u

2. This was reported by Professor H. Hiloebrandsson in connexion with a lecture given t>y

author to the Royal Scicnuiic Society on i Nov. i9^S.

352

11 . THE FLY-AGAKIC IN SCAND 1 NA\TA

[It is unfortunate that Morner dkl not get from I lildebrandsson the source
of his account; it would have been easy at the time to do this. Recent ef-
forts bv Bo Holmstedt. Professor of Toxicology at the Karolinska Institutet.
Stockholm, to find contirmation for the episode have been unavailing: he can
discover no local tradition in \ armland relating to it. and he is an extraor-
dinarily resourceful man. Hildebrandsson’s reputation as a meteorologist
was high; his scholarship above reproach. But in this case he was not in his
own Held and he was volunteering a remark in a discussion following a lecture.
Should not a careful person ask himself how much weight to give to such an
utterance, even from a man of Hildebrandsson’s standing? - rgw]

[4b]

Nordhagun. Rolf. Flucsopp of Berserkergang. (Amanita and Berserk

FTciuies) Published in the Norwegian newspaper A/fenpesten. Jan.

II. 1930-

[Professor Nordhagen held the chair in botany at Oslo University. - rgw]

In an article. Dr. F. Gron has launched an attack on the late Professor
Schubeler’s theory that Amanita were the cause of berserk frenzies. Since my
own name is also mentioned in the article, on account of a popular piece I
wrote for A-Mtigasinet, in which 1 took a sympathetic view of the theory. 1
should now like to be allowed to make a few remarks on the subject. For
Doctor Gron’s article suffers from one grave defect - several very important
elements are passed over in silence, although they are of crucial significance
for anyone wishing to adopt a stand on the theory.

It would never have occurred to me to resurrect Professor Schiibeler’s
theory h.td I not come across a thoroughly modern work on mushroom-
poisoning which strongly supports the theory. I am thinking of the book by
the eminent Swedish scholar. Professor Carl T. Morner. entitled: ‘On the
Higher Mushrooms’ (Uppsala. 1919). Since Morner is a physician and professor
of physiological chemistrx'. considerable importance must be attached to his
statements.

In the chapter on Amanita, Morner deals first with the two varieties which
can be considered relevant in this context, that is. Amviita mtisaniti and
Amrtnira pantherina. He quotes at length the Swedish professor S. Odman. who
in 1784. that is, long before Schubeler’s time, published a famous dissertation
entitled 'Attempt to Explain the Berserk Frenzies of the Old Scandinavian
Warriors, on the Basis of Natural Histor) ’, in which he maintains that the

353

EXHIBITS

berserks know how to use Amanita in order to put themselves in a suitably
martial mood. In this connection Momer produces some extraordinarily
interesting information which militates strongly in favour of the theory.

In the first place he mentions a detail which Professor H. Hildebrandsson
reported in 1918 after a lecture given by Morner at the Royal Scientific Society
in Stockholm. During the advance of the Varmland regiment in 1814. a
Swedish officer noticed that some of the men were 'raving’ and foaming at
the mouth. An inveshgahoM revealed that these soldiers had eaten Amanita in
order to be in proper fighting fettle!

This piece of information strikes me as being extremely important and I
am surprised that Dr. Gran does not say a single word about either Morner’s
book or this particular episode. The soldiers of the Varmland regiment
cannot possibly have hit on the notion of eating Amanita by themselves.
There must undoubtedly be a popular tradition behind the whole story
which may very well have survived from Viking times. In his important
articles on Norwegian folk medicine, Reichbom-Kjennerud has demonstrated
the antiquity of many of the household remedies which are sometimes applied
to both humans and animals even today in our rural areas.

Secondly, Momer reports a very important case of mushroom-poisoning
(no doubt from Amanita pantherina) which occurred at Malmo in 1908. A
German workman had consumed a plateful of poisonous fungi. After a bare
one and a half hours he became light-headed and had to be taken to hospital.
Violent fits of mania soon ensued; the patient sang, shouted, laughed and
ground his teeth as he jumped about on the bed and hit out with his arms.
On account of this he had to be transferred to the psychiatric department
and, in the course of this, he put up a furious resistance, manhandling the
attendants. The spectacle continued until 4 a. m., when he fell asleep, and
the next morning he was ‘perfectly fit’ again.

Speaking of this case, Momer says that it may be described as a complete

berserk frenzy’.

It would take far too long to discuss all the theories put forward on the
subject during the past hundred years. But as Momer is a specialist in toxi-
cology (in his book he mentions no less than 170 different works that are
basically toxicological in content !), it will not do to contend, as Dr. Gron does,
that modem toxicological research knocks the bottom out of the Odman-

Schubeler theory.

I also think that he passes rather lightly over all the accounts which exist
of the use by primitive Siberian peoples of Amanita as an intoxicant. We
cannot escape the fact that the old explorers’ descriptions of the course
taken by the ‘intoxication’ tallies very closely with the berserk symptoms.

354

II. THE fly-agaric; in SCANDIN.WTA

That the intoxication very often takes a far quieter form is established beyond
all doubt. But this bv no means disproves the theory. Here as in the case ol
other poisons it depends on the size of the dose, it may be noted that Amanita,
like tobacco, are highly prized by Northern Siberian tribes, and that they
therefore undoubtedly economize with the precious substance. My colleague
Professor H. U. Sverdrup has told me a hair-raising tale about the exorbitant

price demanded for a single specimen of Amanita in the region of the Bering
Strait. But that is another story, as Kipling says. Experience has obviously
taught these people to arrive at the most appropriate dose. Besides, in the
last few generations Amanita has steadily been supplanted by hard liquor
all over Siberia, so conditions are now not nearly so favourable as they were

for the study of Amanita intoxication.

Bergen, January 1930.

KuYLt-NSTitiRNA-ANDRASSY. Stella. Pusian Brimmer. Stockholm. 1948.

pp. 92-93.

[The author is a Swedish lady married to an Hungarian nobleman. Count
Imre .Andrassy. The book is autobiographical. The title means, Burning
Plain’. The chapter from which we quote is entitled. Svarta massan i Feher-
var’, or The Black Mass in Fehervar. It tells of an experience that the author
went through at the end of the second W'orld War. in 1945. when the Russian
forces occupied the town of Fehervar momentarily. Her account follows: -
RGw]

All private cars are to be instantly present at Apponyiter, the radio an-
nounced one dav in November.

Imre [her husband] came and collected me in our car and then we drove to
the market place where the cars were to assemble. A doctor with dressings
was placed in our car. The marching column was formed and the caravan,
numbering about 150 cars, snaked its way out of town.

As usual, w e drove w ith secret orders. Only the chief of the column knew
where we w'ere headed. We drove southwards. It had been said in the news
that the town ofFehersarhad been liberated from the Russians the same day.

We guessed that we were on our way there to bring help to the liberated
people.

Our guesses came true. The goal was the old Hungarian coronation town, a

355

EXHIBITS

beautiful country town famous for its cathedral in baroque style. We arrived
there in the afternoon. The town was small where before the war there lived
only 40.000 people. But the town had great strategic value. Through it runs
the auto route down to the Balkans and the main road to Vienna. Through
it passed the big oil line from Lispe. The Germans had determined to hold it
at any price, but one day when the Panzers became stuck in the bottomless
clay the Russians had taken it by surprise. Now it had been recaptured by
a counterattack. A Hungarian officer whom we met at the market place in
front of the cathedral related to us how this had happened.

‘The Russians came stealthily in the November mist immediately before
dawn. They came through the maize fields which rustled where the harvest
had not been brought in because of lack of people. They succeeded in passing
over the Danube without being seen at the big marshes near Baja, where one
thought it would be impossible for human beings to advance. The spearhead
consisted of ‘convict battalions’, recruited from among the worst criminals
and loose people in the Red Army. In their nostrils they had pieces of cotton
soaked with a curious mushroom poison that transforms human beings into
beasts. Some of them were captured by us. When the effects of the poison
started to wear off, they shouted and cried as though obsessed. They raged and
bit like dogs mad with rabies and thereafter fell to the ground in a deep sleep.’

[Under the tensions that must have existed at that horrible moment in
Fehervar, it was not to be expected that the details needed to satisfy scientists
in peace-time would be forthcoming. Cotton wads soaked with ‘mushroom
poison’ were in the Russian nostrils. How did they breathe? The inquirer
naturally would like to know what kind of mushroom it was. There is no
hint, in the Russian writings about war through the ages, of such a practice.
The minor nationalities of Siberia, where the fly-agaric is used, certainly did
not make up the contingent of Russian troops, since they are far too few
in number and the Russian authorities frown on their consumption of the
fly-agaric. The reports concerning the Altaic peoples of Siberia indicate that
mushrooms (except for Fames fomentarius, used as tinder for making fire)
play almost no role in their lives. - row]

356

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86'*"

52. 59;

99’

31 ftn.

99 ®

141 ftn. 7

Pi. xn, fac. p. 58

99 ®

30 ftn.

136

129. 131

86^-*

101'

30 ftn.

144

141 ftn. 7

86“*

41 ftn., 47

107*

146*

117 ftn. 2

87'

30 ftn.

107'*

16,4;, 138

87*

107'*

30 ftn.

360

INDEX

««•••••••••••

T ^

»«••»«••»«••» ss ;<:

•mmm

INDEX

Numbers in heavy brackets [ ) refer to the Hxhibiis.

Aalto. Pentii: [40

.AC(iiie»i_v (journal): 116-120

Adam and Eve. legend of: 178-180.

220-222
<id*Irii: 96

Afghan Frontier Delimitation Com-
mission: 115-117. lio
Afghan grape: vuie Soma, theories
about identity of
Afghanistan: 3, 14. 141
Agan'ciis cdmprstris: 64

- ItorteHSis: 64

- HiHScnrins: 268. 278, 345. 35i

- pseudo-riiinnitniCHs; 200

Agni; 3. 39. 5i-53. 204: Pi. v. fac.
p.42

Agrawala, V. S.: 17
<ilnc/iiitnl.’a: 63
Ahriman: 102
Aitchison. I. E.: 117. 120
Ajanta: 90

Akademiai Kiado: 224. [38] 315
Albanians: 173

alcoholic beverage: vide Soma, theo-
ries about identity of
flicool: 17, 331

Alfred. King, and pancakes: 86
Alparslan, Orhan: 49
Altaic: 209. 21 1. 217. 241. 356
UHiddou (French for 'touchwood’): 170
Amanita (= fly-agaric) girls: 288 ff.
Amanita arsarea: 194

- mMsciiriu (Fr. ex L.) Quel.: 10. 50.
61 ftn., 143, 146, 179. 199. 200. 201
ftn. T. 202. 251. 254. 257, 260, 305.
315. 322, 334. 348. 353

- muscaria van Camtschatica: 247

- pant/ieriim: 353-354

- pluilhuies: 192

- venni: 192

- viresti: 192
Amanitas: 71 ftn., 72

AiniiriiJLwu (.A»uir«i Siin/iii): 62. 98 Itn.

I. 102 ftn. 5. 103 ftn. 4. 126 ttn. 3
ag^oj|jio^. (iiiteiiiutii : 102
d[i[ipoo(a: 125. 130

tiiiioroto (Basque for 'toadstool’): 187
uiiirtu: 30. 33-34. t>3. Uo. i"2
(iinrtdvdfli: 123

dwiii: 44. 45. 47. 61. 63. 9b, 137
Amu Darya River (0.\us): 114: Map
A. fac. p. 154

.Amur River: Map A, fac. p. 154
Anadyr River: 159. 273. 274. 275;

Map C. fac. p. 154
diidlkis: 62
62

Andrews. George: 146 ftn. 2

.Anglo-Saxons: 173

Anquetil-Duperron. .A. H.: 102. 106

Apastamba: 100

d«|mivine: 17. 332

Arian: vide Aryan

.Aristophanes: 102 ftn. i

dr/Miitini: 97

armui: 37. 96

arusii: 37

Aryan: 3. 4. 12. 13. 15. 49. 64. 68. 76.
107, ii5*iib. 120-122. 127. 129. 132.
136 ftn. 4. 137. 142 ftn. I. 165. 169.
172. 203. 209. 210, 218
Asafoctida: 116

Asclepias sp.: vide Soma, theories
about identity of
Asvins: 61
atasd: 140

363

INDEX

Atharvans: 28
At/!<jrv<ive<iti: 46 ftn. i, 132
Atlasov: [2] 233
Austerlitz, Robert: 224
Avesta: 12. 19-21. 32, 68. 95. 100-102.
106, 108, 116, 121-122, 127, 132, 137.

144

Avesta. Horn I’dst: 19-21, 100
- rtJSHci: 9-11, 32, 100, loi
Axis of the World: 214, 220
Ayurveda, -ic: 100, 107, 116. 118,

135

Aztecs: 3

Bahhru: 37
Bailey, H. W.: 21
Baker, J. G.: 117

Balazs, J.; 166, 330: - and pai)x clus-
ter, [38] 315-318

Balfour. Edward: 99 ftn. 4. 113 ftn.
4. 119

Balkhash, Lake: Map A. fac. p. 154
Balov, J.: 338
banha: 166

banyan tree {Fica religiosa): 97
barley: 106, 110, 118, 130
Barnard, Mary: 211, 220
Barnett, L. D.: 129
Bartholom<e: 21

Basella sp. : vide Soma, theories about
identity of
Basham, A. L.: 139
Basques: 173, 198

Bassia sp.: vide Soma, theories about
identity of

Baykal, Lake: Map A. fac. p. 154
Bazante, Gabrielle: 201 ftn. i
Beelzebub: 195, 196
beer: vide Soma, theories about iden-
tity of -fermented drink
‘bemushroomed’: 164, 207-208, 304
Benveniste, Emile: loi. 102 ftn. i
Berezovo: 281; Map A, fac. pag. 154

Berg, Lev Semenovich: 237, 238
Bergaigne. Abel: 4 ftn.. 39, 58, 68,

III, 218

Bergman, Sten: 241, [27] 285
Bernadakis: loi
Bernadotte, J.-B.: 184
Bemeker, Erich: 168
berserk-raging: vide fly-agaric and
berserk-raging
Betula nana: 213, 256
Bhagavad Gita: 8. 102
bhang (bhatlgd, bhangd): vide Soma,
theories about identity of, - Canna-
bis saliva

Bhdvaprakdsa: 100

Bhawe, S. S.: 6 ftn. i, 12, 31, 46, 47,
52. 56. 59. 67
Bhishagratna, K. L.: 125
Bhrgu: 34
fc/inti: 59

h/iiimi kavaka: 64, 65
bhurja: 218
b/iiistrNa: 64

Bibra, Ernst von: 322, 3i4-3i6
Big Indian: 173

bilberry (Vticcinium n/iginosMm): 154.
248, 251. 314

birch: 13, 23-24, 35. 4i. 218; exalted
role of, among Siberian tribesmen
211-222; vide also fly-agaric and
birch

Birdwood. George Christopher: 108
Bloomfield, Maurice: 125
Boas, Franz: 165, 166, [31I 306 -and
pov cluster, 306
Bodleian Library; 95
Boetticher, Paul Anton: vide Lagarde,

Paul Anton de

Bogoraz, Vladimir: 45. *57. *59.

195, 208, 213 ftn. 2, 265, 266. 271 ftn-,
[223 273*279. 276 fig-. 322. 338
Bohus. Gabriel: 224
Boisacq, Emile: 168

364

INDEX

holeios: 71. 72 ftn.

Bollingcn Foundation: 224
Bondartsev, A. S.: 238
Borhcgyi. Stephan F*. de: 17s fm. i.
224

Bornniullcr. J.: 122
Borv. Michelle: I79
Bosch, Hieronymus: 195; Ph xxii fac.
p. 196

Bohilingk, Otto: 107

Bouda, Karl: 166: - and payx cluster,

Ds] 31,1

Boutenert'. Ekaterina Apollinarievna:
202

Bowden, K.: 6i ftn.

Brahmans: 4. 7. 8. 14. 78. 99. 104.

112. 117. 127

Bru/imrtJitis: 95 ft'., 107. ni. 116. 123,

135. 138, 143

- Ainireva Bril/unaMa: 97 ftn. 2

- Kausflairi Bniliufana: 97 ftn. 6

- S’al<ipal/i(i Braliinaiiii: 24, 95 ft’., 120,
127, 128. 135 fin. 2

- Taitlirfya Bra/iHiaiui: 96. 97 ftn. 9

- Taadya Bra/iHiaiui: 96, 97 fin. i
Brahmanaspati: 53

brandy: 138: vide also aijuavittr.vedil’a,
BrajiHlwein
Branntwein: 16

Brekhman, 1. I.. and Scm, Y. A.: 151.

209 ftn., 21 1 fin. I, [42] 334-338
Brightman, Frank H.: 179
British Museum: 95
Brunnhofer, Hermann: 125
Buchwald, N. Fabritius: 239
Buddayasas of Kabul: 65 ftn.

Buddha, death of: 65

buflfalo: 42

bull: 36, 37, 41. 42

- sharpened shining horns of: 42
Bulliard, Jean Baptiste; 200. 202
Burnell, Arthur Coke: no, 112, 123
Burnouf, Eugene: 36, 106, 108

Burrow. Thomas: 13
Bursoe: 77 *t8, 84

Ca:>alpinia sp.; \'ii/e Soma, theories
about identity of
Caland, \V.: 58, 124. ns ftn. i
Calonvction sp.; vale Soma, theories
about identity of

Calotropis sp. : viile Soma, theories
about identity of

Cambodia: 63
cundii/.i: 33-34

CumiuFis siitivu (= C. indica): vide
Soma, theories about identity of
'cap' of mushroom: vide Soma head’
Carey. William: 103
Carroll. Lewis: 187
Castren, Matthias Alexander: 165,
166. 310
Catalonia: 180
Catskills: 173

Centella sp. : vide Soma, theories
about identity of

cepes: 72 ftn.

Ceropegia sp.: vit/e Soma, theories
about identity of

c/t<iHipig»en lie Paris: 64
c/tailra: 63, 64

Chaucer. GeolTrey: 182, 188
Chayannes, Ed.; 72. 73
Cheremis: 166, 167; Map A, fac. p.

154; Map B, fac. p. 154
chimney-sweep and fly-agaric: 204

fig-

Chopra. 1. C.: 138 ftn. i
Chopra, R. N.: 138
Chou Ch’i-k’uen: 223
Chukchi. 10. 165. 166. 195. 197. 243,
255 IT., 265. 271. 273 ft'.. 305. 334.

336. 346: Map A. fac. p. 154; Map
C, fac. p. 154

Chukotka: 159. 160. 167. 194. 305.
333. 334. 339: Map C. fac. p. 154

365

INDEX

Chunda: 65
cinnabar: 219 ftn.

Clark, J. G. D.: 239
Clovis, vase of King: 86
Clusius, Carolus: 199, 201
Cocculus sp.: vide Soma, theories
about identity of

coconut palm: vide Soma, theo-
ries about identity of, - fermented
drink

Cohen. Chapman: 127
Colebrooke. H. T.: 102, 103 ftn. 4.
104

Compositae: vide Soma, theories about
identity of
conifer: 13, 23-24, 41
Conklin, Harold C.: 213 ftn. 3
Conyza sp. : vide Soma, theories about
identity of
Corner, E. J. H. : 239
Coromandel coast: no
Cosmic Tree: 215. 220
crane, demoiselle: 91 fin.
crapaudin: 10, 35, 187, 194
creeper: 14. 47. 96. 97. 98. 136. 140.
14 1 ; vide also Soma-vadi, data, -lutd,
sbom-luta

Crinum sp. : vide Soma, theories about
identity of

crowberries (Empefritm nigrum): 324
Cynanchium sp.: vide Soma, theories
about identity of

Danielou, Alain: 141
Darmesteter, James: 19-21, 121, 122
Dasyus: 23

date juice: vide Soma, theories about
identity of, - fermented drink
decarnated skeletons painted red:

219 ftn.

Deccan: 119.

Deli Sosva River: Map B, fac. p. 154
Delphi: 49

Demyanka River: Map B, fac. p. 154
Denbei: 233-235
Dennis. R. W. G.: 174 ftn. 2
DhanvantariyanighaittH: 99
dhingri: 64

Dhurtasvami's description of Soma:

100. 107, 116
Dickinson, Emily: 182
Diderot’s Encyclopedie: 181
Dioszegi. V.: 224

Dittmar. Carl von: 156. 161. 213, [13]
256-258, 265, 266, 322
Divine Mushroom (or Fungus) of
Immortality: 9. 80. 153, 210. 220;
vide also Ling CItih
‘dog’s urine’: 64

Donner. Kai: 152, 158, [28] 286-287,
[28a] 309-310

Drakert, Marcelle Lecomte: 224
drapsd : 63

Drona, Mount: 78-79, 85
Druids: 176
Drury, Heber: 107, 109
Dumezil, Georges: 49. 130. 223
Dunin-Gorkavich. A. A.: [25] 280
Durga, goddess: 128
durmdda (intoxication): 137
dilrvd: 96. 97. 127
Duthie, John Firminger: 121
Dymock. Dr., of Bombay: 119

Eckblad, F. E.: 200, 201 ftn. i
Efron. Daniel H. : 201 ftn. i
Eggeling, Julius: 24 ftn. i, 120
Egyptian beer: 130
Eleusine coracana'. vide Soma, theories
about identity of

Eliade, Mircea: 138. i39 ftn- 2. 166,
214 ftn., 215. 231; - and shamanic

inebriation, [41] 326-334
Eliot, Charles: 129
Elliot, Walter: 107
Empetrum nigrum : vide crowberries

366

1 N D H X

Endcrii. J.: 154. i 5 '. iS 9 . 161. [ly]
261-264. 3«- 324. 326
Ephedra sp.; vjde Soma, ihoorics
about identity of
Epiiedni viilgflris: 105 fig.

Epic of Gilgamesh: 219. 220

tiMgicilijo/iiciH: vitie Icipret
Erman. Adolph: 152. 154. i5t>. is8.
1S9, i6i, 162. [Ill 251-254. 322.
34«

ejcrt: 216
Fiasit: 38
Ethiopia: 63

Eugster, Conrad H.: 201 ftn. 1, 202.
211 ftn. I

Euphorbia sp.; vide Soma, theories
about identity of

Fa Chow: 65 ftn.
fatjkd’tim: 165, 166. 207, 310
fiiHSse orange: 10, 194
Felice, Philippe de: 134, 135, 147
Ferula sp.: vide Soma, theories about
identity of
Ficd religiose: 97

filtrcs, three: 31. 34. 51-58; vide also
Soma and filtrcs

Finno-Ugrian linguistic familv: to.

13: linguistic chart, fac. p. 166
Finno-Ugrians: 10, 13. 165, 10- 102.

207: lingustic chart, fac. p. 166
Finns: 165, 166. 21 1 fin. 2; linguistic
chart, fac. p. 166
fir: 13

Firdousi: 77-78. 91

Fischer, Leopold: 141

FliegenpH^: 10. 194 flf., 199. 200, 202;

as symbol of happy augury, 204
Fliegenpil^lieder : 302
Fliegensc/iwomm : 194
flies and madness: 195-198
flies, eggs of, laid in reindeer nostrils:

279

lly-agaric

-and berserk-raging: 157-158. 176-
1-8. [4j 237. [32] 306, [40] 322. 324.

341 fl'-

- and birch: 13. 23-24, 35. 41. 74- 211,
212-222, [4] 238-239. [loj 247, [12]
254. [13I 256, [21] 269

- and cattle: 74-75

- and chimney-sweep: 204 fig.

- and conifers: 13, 23-24. 41

- and firs; 13

- and flies: 6i. 198 IT.

- and Lamut: [6] 241, [27] 285

- and na\el; 48-51

- and Ob-Ugrians; 160 ft'.

- and punk (touchwood): 216-222,

[4] 237-239

- and reindeer; 24. 75-76. I6i-i62,
[5l 240. [loJ 250. [11] 252. 253

- and 'single eye’: 46-47

- and udder: 43. 45. 46, 214

- and urine: 25 ft.. 54-58, 158, 160-161,
[4I 237. [5] 239-240. [ I ol 249-250, 25 1 .
[12] 255 ftn.. (13I 257, [Ml 259. [19]
263. [21] 267, 270 illus.. [22] 275.

(40I 324. [43I .346, [44] 349

- and Yakut: [6] 241

- as fire: 52-54

- as inebriant of northern Eurasia:
164 ft".. 172 fl".. 207 IT.

- as sacred herb: 62

- bought for reindeer: 24. \ 52. [lo] 247,
[II] 252. [15] 259. [43] 346. [44] 349

- cannot be cultivated: 18

- dried before eating: 153-155, [3]
234. [4] 236. [5] 239. [6] 240. [10] 247,
[n] 253. [>2] 254. [13] 256. [18] 261,
[21] 266. [24I 280, [26] 281, 283,

[30] 303. [32] 307

- eaten by Cossacks: [4] 236

- foretells the future: [19] 264

- gathered in July and August: [lo]

247

367

INDEX

fly-agaric (coHf.)

- induces feats of strength: 42. 159
[6] 240. [10] 249. [22] 273-274

- inebriation, absence of hangover
from: 155, [6] 240, [10] 250

- euphoria caused by: 155-156, [4]
236. [6] 240, l9] 244-245. [I I] 253,

(13I 256. [22] 274

- syndrome of: 75. 158-160, 179,
210-211, [4] 236-237 [5I 239-240.
[6] 240, [9] 244-246. [10] 248-250,
[12] 254-256, [13] 256-257. [18I
261. [19] 262, [21] 266-267. [22]

273-274. [26] 282

- juice, colour of: 37

- marketed in strings of three: 45,
[22] 273

- not sole mushroom in shamanic
use in Siberia: 305, [33] 308-309

- riddle: [22] 278

fly-agaric, alleged toxicity of: 152-153,
155-156, [6] 240. [10] 250-251, [12]
255, [18] 261

- comparison of, with Middle Amer-
ican hallucinogenic mushrooms:
162-164, 174

- consequences of identification of,
with Soma: 67-70

- cultic meaning of, among Ob-
Ugrians: [26] 281-285

- decoction made from, by Russians:
160, [11] 253

- description of: 13. 35-36, 41

- dreams caused by: [9] 244-245, [19]
262

- European folkloric and linguistic
background of: 36, 172 ff-

- ‘knobs’ or ‘studs’ of: 59-60

- Koryak mythology concerning: [21]

268-270, 272

- life history of: 40

fly-agaric (cont.)

I4] 236, [lo] 249. [12] 255. [18] 261.
[21] 266, [22] 274

- personification of, by Siberian tri-
besmen: 159-160. 163, [4] 236. [21]
267. 268, 271, [22] 274-275, 276,
[24] 280. [29] 287-301

- preference for, as compared with
alcohol: 155, 156. 157, [10] 250, [n]
253. [21] 267-268

- reputation of, as fly killer: 61, 198-
202

- shrinkage in use of. in Siberia: ii,
208-209, [42] 334

- tabus on eating of; 152, 153, 160.
[24] 280, [28] 286

- two forms of: 25 ff.

- use of. by women : [4] 237. [3 1 ] 257,
[21] 266

- varieties of: 35-36

- Yurak (Samoyed) mythology con-
cerning: [24] 280

‘fly-agaric’, origin of term: 190
Fomes fonwitarius: 169, 170, 217, 238,

239. 269. 356

Fomes igniarius: 238
Food of Life: 214, 220
fool-mushroom: 192-193
Forbes. R. J.; 17. 332 ftn. 1
Frankfort-on-the-Main: 199
Fraxinus sp.: vide Soma, theories
about identity of
Fries, E.: 352
Frisians: 173
Fukien province: 72. 73

Ganges: 95. 127

gatija: vide Soma, theories about
identity of, - Cannabis sativa
Ganoderma lucidum (leyss.) Karst.: 87
illus., 88, 90 illus., 91
Garcia d’Orta: 137 ftn. 4

- macropsia caused by: 158, 162, Garden of Eden: 178-180. 220-222

368

INDliX

Garrett. John: loy

Geldncr. Karl I-.; 6. 12, I6. si, 63. 67,

138. 144

Genus Betula, Distrihuiion of: Map
A. fac. p. IS4; Map B. fac. p. IS4;
Map C. fac. p. IS4
(Jemis Pinus, l)i>tribution of: Map A.
fac. p. IS4: Map B. fac. p. IS4:
Map C. fac. p. IS4
Georgi, Johanit (iottlieb: 153. 155,
177 . [o] 240-241. . 3 ii. .Ut*

Ghose, T. P. : 13S frn, 3

('tlv-agaric' in Kanichadal):

230

(unibutas. Marija: 180. loo-iyi hgs.
Gi/higinj.k: 275: Map C. fac. p. 134
Gi/higa Gulf; 201 : Map (.!. fac. p. is4
»i<niMri: so

Goethe, Wolfgang: U)s
Goldsmith. Oli\er: 151, 2sy
Gonda.Jan: 141
(dinvev. Sandor: 224
Grahame. Kenneth: 187
Granet. Marcel; 80 ftn.

Grassmann. Hermann: 30. 37. 62.

109, no frn. 4, 122 ftn. 5. i.39 ftn. 6
Grieve. James: 159
Grimm brothers: 109
Gron. Fredrik: 177. 3S3. 354
Groot. J. J. M. de: 84 ftn.

Gubernatis, Angelo de: 1 12. i i7ftn. i.
131

Gulya, Janos: 192. 193. 223. 302-304.
306

Gymncma sp.: vide Soma, theories
about identity of
g)psics (Romany language): 118

Hadding the Dane: 184
Hajdu, P., and piitjX cluster: [37] 314
hallucinogen’, origin of the word:
175 ftn. I

hallucinogenic mushrooms of Me-
.\ico: 23. 32, 42. 7S, 14^’. 162-163.
1-4-175. 21 1. 322

hallucinogens: 113 ('narcotic'). 129-
130. 134. 140, 210. 221
li«j-»iti c/iiiu (‘toad-mushroom’): i8y
Han Dvnastv: 82, 83 ftn.. 85. 90. 91
/luygo: 286, 309
Hansen. Sigurd: 239
Haoma: 19-21. 33. 9S. 100. 101. 102.
104. 100. 107. 109. 110. 112, 121.
122 lig.. i2t>. 132. 135-137. 139
Hardv. Hdmund: 123
/uiri: 36-42: PI. II, fac. p. 14
/i(irm*il: 109. 114
Hartwich. Carl: 12s. 126. 231
- and fly-agaric: [40J 321-320
Flarva. Uno: 215, 220
hashish: vide Soma, theories about
identity of. -Ciinntd>is .tufivii
Hauer, Jakob Wilhelm: 129. 130, 131
Flaug. Martin: 107. 108 frn. i, 110.

HI. 110

Haughton, Graves Chamney: 103
/mioiiii: 102

Havell. K. B.: 127, 128. 129
Flegnauer, R.: 141 ftn. i
Heim, Roger: 30, 30 ftn. 1, 201. 225
hemp: vide Soma, theories about
identity of. -C(niU(ihi.s sufivti
Henning. W. B.: 136 ftn. 2. 166. 330
Henry, \ ictor: 58. 125
Herb of Immortality: 211, 21s. 219,
220. 222

Herb (or Plant) of Life: 220
Hermitage Museum: 89 ftn.

Hertel. Joh.mnes: 135, 136 ftn. i
Herzfeld, Ernst: 137
/leso (Japanese): 49
Hildebrandsson, H.: 177, 178, 352,
353. 354

Hillebrandt. Alfred: 122, 144
Himalayas: 22. 23, 09, 218

369

INDEX

Hindu Kush: 22. 65. 69, 141. 218
Hino, Iwao: 87
Hittites: 219

Hoffer, Abram: 175 ftn. i
Holberg, Ludvig: 196
Holmberg, Uno: 214, 218
Holmsred, Bo; 178, 201 ftn. i, 353
Holy Agape; 220
Holy Water of the East: 30, 74
horn: 102, 108
homa: 119. 132, 137
Horn Yast: vide Avesta
honey: vide Soma, theories about
identity of
Hongo, Tsuguo: 223
Hooker, Joseph Dalton: 109, 119
Hopkins, E. W.: 127
hops, derivation of: 117, 118; also vide
Soma, theories about identity of
Houtum-Schindler, A.: 118, 120
Hsu Fu: 83, 84, 85
Hubers, E.: 133

hum, hu 7 na: 104, 118, 120, 122, 132
Human Relations Files: 224
Hummel, Karl: 140
Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
publishing office of, (Akademiai
Kiad6): 224
Hungarians: ii
Hu Ssu Hui: 170

Huxley, Aldous: 146, 147. i75. 176
hydromel: 123, 141: vide also Soma,
theories about identity of, honey

Idea diffusion: 81

Imazeki, Rokuya: 74 ftn. 2, 75. 87.
155, 211. 223

Indian Institute (Oxford): 95
Indian Office: 95
Indians, Mexican: 3, 163
Indra: 3, 23, 26, 27, 28. 30. 33. 43. 44.
55. 56, 63; heart or belly or entrails

of, 54 ff-

Indraliasta: 126
Indrdsatia: 126
Indrasurd: 126
indu: 63

Indus (River and Valley): 3, 13. 15.
16. 32, 65. 68, 73-74, 95, 209: Map A,
fac. p. 154

Ingalls, Daniel H. H.: 79, 223
insect as cause of illness: 277
Ipomcea sp. : vide Soma, theories
about identity of
Iran: 14. 19, 34. 71. 74
Irtysh Ostyak: vide Ostyak, Irtysh
Irtysh River: 10, 154: Map A, fac.

p. 154: Map B. fac. p. 154
Itallie, L. van: 135
Itelmen: vide Kamchadal
Itkonen, T. I.: 167, [23] 279
Iwasa, Shigeyoshi: 74 ftn. 2

Jacourt, Louis de: 181 ftn. i
Jadrintsev, Nikolai Mickhailovich :
260

Jakobson, Roman: 40 ftn., 168, 183,
225. 319
jewel herb: 81

Jochelson, Vladimir: 154, I57. i59.
161. 194. 208. 213 ftn. 2, [21] 265-
273. 270 fig., 287. 322, 328 ftn. 2
Johnson, Donald: 175 ftn. i
Jones, William: 102. 125
Jouveau-Dubreuil, G.: 132

Kabul: 115 ftn.

Kalidasa: 79. 9i

Kamchadal; 10, 49 ftn. i, I53. 236,

237, 238, 239. 243 ff., 265, 273, 287 ff-,

305, 315. 334-337. 346. 349 ff-J M^p
A. fac. p. 154; Map C. fac. p. I54
Kamchadal tales: 160. 288-294
Kamchatka: 233 ff-, 238, 241, 243 ff--
273. 334-337. 349 If-! Map C. fac.
p. 154

370

INDEX

KiUiiicnski Dluzvk. Ad.ini : lo. i $i.

[I] Z 33 . 33 i ftn.

Kaminov: Map C. tac. p. IS4

Kan-ch uan palace: 83
Kane. P 13^

Kannisto, Arttiiri: is4. it>5. 305. 333:

- and piwx cluster. [33) 308-301)
Kan-o, Suigecsu; 90
Kao Yao-ling: 223
Kapadia. B. H.: 140. 145
Kapi.si: 1 15 ftn.

Kaps. Leo: 134

Karjalainen, K. F.: 1S4. [2^] 281-285.
315. 3i8-329

Karolinska Institute: i“8, 353
97

KiilvJvitJii) SViiiititsiitra: 9"

Kazytn River: Map B. fac. p. 154
Keith. Arthur I3erriedale: 125. 126.

131

Keats, John: 182

Kennan. George: isi. [14] 258-259.

322. 325. 320. 349 ftn. 3.

Kerala: 66. 132
Kerman (Iran): tio, n8. 129
Ket: 10, 152. 16I. 286. 309: Map A,
fac. p. 154
Keta Ehau: 171
Kew Herbarium: 117
Khanty: Map A. fac. p. 154: vide
Ostyak, linguistic chart, fac. p. 166.
Khory, Rustomjee Naserwanyil: 123
i’/tumfci: 63
Khyber Pass: 141

kiprei {EpUobiiim angustifoliiim): 153.

235. 252. 324. 335 . 349
Kiratas: 128

Kline. Nathan S.: 201 ftn. i
Klynchevsk: 158. 253
‘knobs’ of Soma: 59-60; Pi. xn. fac.
p. 58

kni'sk: 1 —

‘knots’ of Soma: S9-6o; Pi. xii. fac.
p. 58

Kobavashi, Yoshio: 74 Itn. 2. 223
Kollangod: 132

Kolyma River: Map A. fac. p. 154:

Map C. fac. p. 154
Kooger. J. P.: 143

Kopec. Joseph: 25. i55. 158. i59. [ol
243-240

Korvak; 10. 154, 155. *56. 157. 160,
195. 234. 237 If . 247. 249 tv., 285 IT..

305. 3*5. 322, 325. 326. 3.34-337. 340:
Map A. fac. p. 154; Map C. fac.
P- *54

Koryak tales: 160, 268-269, 272, 294-
301

k’on »it>; 170

Krasheninnikov, Stepan: 152. 153,
157. 158. 159. *0*. *77. [4I 235-239.
253 ftn.. 257. 264. 265. 266, 268,
322. 334-338. 346 ftn. 2. 347. 348
Krause. H.: 324 ftn. 1
Krishna. S.: 138 ftn. 3
KV.oi<i: 33
Ksatriya: 64
btiiMpd; 63

Kuhn. Adalbert: 121. 141
kiiknr-»iut(t)J: 64
Kumarasambhava: 79
kumiss: 114
fcttiii (grass): 96. 97. 127
Kuylenstierna-Andrassy. Stella: [47]
355-356

Lagarde. Paul Anton de: loi, 102.

108, 109 ftn. 3. 114 ftn. 3, 125
Lamut: 241. 285

Langsdorf, G. H. von: 49 ftn. i. 153,
*55. 158-162, 211, 213, [to] 246-251,
322

hnigue d’oc; 180
Lansdell. Henry: [15] 259

371

INDEX

Lao Tze: 49
Lapps: 173

Lapps, Inari: 10. 167. 279: Map A.
fac. p. 154

Lassen, Christian: 106, 107 ftn. i
Laufer, Berthold: 17
Lawrence. D. R: 182
Lehtisalo, T.: 152. 154, 160. 166, [24]
280, 330; - and paijx cluster, [24a]
310-312. 314, 317*318
Leland, Charles G.: 118
Lena River: Map A. fac. p. 154
Leon, Ponce de: 221
Lesseps, Jean Baptiste Barthelemy
de: [7] 241-242
Lewin, Louis: 131, 323 ftn. 1
Lindner. Paul: 133, 134
Ling Chih: 62, 80 ff., 88 ff., 87 & 90
figs., 204, 210; Plates XIV and xv, fac.
p. 82: PI. XVIII, fac. p.90: PI. XIX, fac.
p. 91 ; Pl. XX. fac. p.92
Linnjeus, Carolus: 72, 184, 199, 200.
201

Lipshitz, S. Yu.: 238
Lithuanians: 180, 189
Liverovskiy, Yu. A.: 238
Locquin, Monique: 201 ftn. i
Lopatin, Ivan A.: 209 ftn., 305, 333
Lozinski, Philip: 224
Lozva: 305 ff.; Map B, fac. p. 154
Lu Yu: 72-73

Lyall, Charles James: 115
Lysebraate, Inger Anne: 223

Macdonald, Kenneth Somerled: iii
Macdonell, A. A.: 26, 125, 136 ftn. 4
Machek, V.: 168

macropsia: 153, 158, 162, 236, 249,
255, 261, 266, 274
jndda (happiness): 63. i37. i44
Madana: 97

tnddhu: 16, 6r, 63, 123, 132
Maghada: 65

Maglcmose: 169, 170, 239
Magnus, Albertus: 199, 201, 203
Magnus. Olaus: 177
Mag)ar: r66, 167, 192, I93. 302
Mahdbharata: 33. 91, 130
Mahoney, Mary: 224
Mainstay: vide Soma, mainstay of
the sky

Majakovskij, Vladimir: 183
Majorca: 180
rndfesifea: 61

Malabar coast: no, 132
Mangelsdorf, Paul C.: 224
Mani: 71-74, 220
Manichseism: 71, 72, 191, 224
Mansi: Map A. fac. p. 154: Map B,
fac. p. 154; linguistic chart, fac.
p. 166

Manu. Laws of: 64. 102, 103
Maori: 171

Mardersteig, Giovanni: 225
marijuana; vide Soma, theories about
identity of, - Cannabis saliva
Markovo: 254-255
marua: 127
Maruts: 29, 30

‘Marxelous Herb’: vide Ling Chih
mdlaiiga: 33

Maydell. Gerhard von: 154. 156. i59.

161, 213, [12] 254-256, 322
Mazatec Indians of Mexico: 63
Mazdaism: 73

mead (hydromel): vide Soma, theo-
ries about identity of, - fermented
drink

Medinikosa: 98
[i€&u: 123
Megasthenes: loi

Menispermum sp.; vide Soma, theo-
ries about identity' of
metabolite, potable: 32

- psychotropic: 32

- vide fly-agaric, metabolite of

372

I N D I-: X

tiiillci: 97. I4<’

Mills. L. H.: 126. 127 fin. 1

Milton. John: 182

Milwaukee Public Museum: 224

miraculous c/n/i: 81

Mitanni: 219

Mithraism: 71. 215

.Miira: 44. 48. 58

Mitra, Rajendra Lala: iw. m. H9. 132
loi. 102. 108. 109. 125
Modi. Jivanji jamshedji: 74 fin. 1
Mold. Jules: 77 fm.
iho-A'ii: 170, 171, 189 fin. 2
Mongolian language; 170
Monier-Williams, Monier: 37, 97, 98.
112

Monier-Williams’ dictionary: 94. 98.
122

Montaigne. Michel Hyquem de: 182
moon: vulc Soma, theories about

identity of

Mordvin: 166. 167; Map A. fac. p. 154;

Map B, fac. p. is4
morels: 64

Morgenstierne, Georg: 223
Morner. Carl Th.: 177, 178. 347,
[4S] 3SI-353. 354

Motai. Mr. and Mrs. Mikivoshi:
74 ftn. 2

iHtic/mmijr: vide mnH’/iomor
nm er/j: 65, 82

Mukherjee. Braja Lai: 128. 129. 136
HiicWiomur: 10, 156, 194. 235. 236. 238
ft.. 251 fr.. 280, 321. 324. 349
loi

Muller, Friedrich Max: 67 ftn. 2. 98
fin. 5, 100. 107, 120. 122. 132,

285

Muller, Reinhold F. G.: 138
Munch. P. A.: 350
WHHjfl, mtityara: 97, 99
Munkacsi.Bernat: 157. 166. 285 ftn. i.
I30] 302-304. 327 ftn. I. 330: - and

fuitjx cluster, [32] 306-308, 310,
3 1 5 ft*.

HiHril/iiin: 43-46

mushrooms. Satanic link in Old
French: 189

mushroom stones in Kerala, Nepal:
66

milOraw: 32

mvcophilia: 180, 185, 208
mvcophobia; 181. 184. 185
mvcorrhiza: 13, 23, 213. 216

Ndhhi: 48

Nadkarni. K. M. and A. K.: 139
Nahua: 3
jMiciIs.jWia : 122
Nambudri Brahmans; 132
Narym: 153. 240. 287; Map B. fac.
P- 154

nausea: 31. 32. 55. 75
navel: 16, 29. 48-31. 214: vide also
Soma and navel
Nayar. S. C.: 138 fin. i
Needham, Joseph: 81
Nehring. A.: 132
New Zealand: 171

ivui iViriifctti: 98. ti6

iiiriiy: 41
nh'ar.i: no

‘nodules’ of Soma: 39-60

Noin L'la: 89. 91 : PI- xvi. fac. p. 88:

Pi. XVII. f.K. p. 89

Nooten. Bart van: 223
Nordhagen. Rolf: 201. (46] 353-335
Novitskij. Gr.: 285
nyagrodha (FictJ rWigioSii): 97, 122
Nyberg. Henrik Samuel: 101 ftn. 6.
136

Obdorsk: 192 ftn. i. 281-285: M.\p B.
fac. p. 1 54

Ob (river and valley): 10. i65:MapA.
fac. p. 154: Map B, fac. p. 154

373

INDEX

Ob-Ugrians: 151, 160. 166. 167, 193.
207, 213 ftn. 2. 280, 281; linguistic
chart fac. p. [66
ochre: 219 ftn.

Odin: 346

Odman. Samuel: 176, 177. ^ 37 , 341.

(43] 343-347. 35 i
Odvssey: loi. 108. 109 ftn. i. 127
O’Flaherty, Wendy Doniger: 8. 12.

17. 33. 79. 92. 176, 223
Ogloblin, N.: [2] 233-234
Ohlmarks, A.: 315
Ohrmazd: 102

Okhotsk, Sea of: Map A, fac. p. 154;
Map C, fac. p. 154

Oldenberg, Hermann: 123, 130, 132.

139

Olsen. Magnus: 177

oii^aXo?: 49

Omphalia: 50

6[iW(ii: lor, 102, 108, 109

opium: 129, 136 ftn. 4. 138, 139, 193

Orlov. N. I.: 338

Orphic: 220

osadlii (herb): 62. 79, 98. 136. 219 ftn.
Osmond. Humphrey: 175 ftn. i
Ostyak: 10. 189. 192, 240, 241. 302.
306 ff.. 346; Map B. fac. p. 154

- Irtysh: 154, 233, 260. 281-285.
306 ff., 327

- Samoyed: Map A, fac. p. 154; Map
B, fac. p. 154

- Ugrian: 315
Otrebski. Jan: 168
Ovsianiko-Kulikovskij, D. N.: 112-113
Oxus: 23; Map A, fac. p. 154

Paddy, wild: no
Padma Piiraiia: 78, 84
Pxderia sp.: vide Soma, theories
about identity of
pagal-: 164. 166
pagav-: 164

*paggala-: 169 ftn.
pagyr: 166
Pahlavi: 20. 21
Pallas, P. S.: 257, 315
palmyra palm: vide Soma, theo-
ries about identity of, - fermented
drink

pave (Maori): 171
pangit : 169 ftn.

Panini: 17, 115 ftn.

Pan Ku: 85. 86. 88, 89
Pannonian plain: 167, 193
Panofsky, Erwin: 179-180
pavx- 164 ff.. 169 ftn., 189. 192. 207,
281-285. 304. 306-313
- and inebriation: 164, 207-208
Papay.J.: 192 ftn.
parasol : 63

Paren': 254, 267: Map C. fac. p. 154
Parjanya: 4 ftn., 23, 39, 40
Parkinson, John: 193
parna: 96, 97

Parsis: 19, 32, 74, 102, no, 118, 119,
122, 127, 129, 139
pdrusd: 59
Patanjali: 139
Patil, G. M.: 141

Patkanov, Serafim: [17] 260, 281. 307
Paulini, Kristian Frantz: 325
pdvamdna: 38. 56. 63, 214, 220; Pi. in,
fac. p. 36

pdvani: 99 ftn. 2, 117
Pavgee, N. B.: 129
Peabody Museum of Natural History,
Yale University: 143
Pedersen, Holger: 168, [39] 319*320
Peganum harmala: vide Soma, theories
about identity of
Pelliot, P.: 72. 73

Pelymka: 305 ff.; Map B, fac. p. i54
Penzhinsk Gulf: 254, 257, 259, 265,
266; Map C. fac. p. 154
Periploca aphylla: 105 fig.

374

INDEX

Pcriploca sp.: n./f Soma, theories
aN)Ut identity ol
‘peso (proto-Japanese): 40
Peterson. Roger Tory; 91 ho-
Peter the Great: 233-^34

p/iiilij: 117

90. 97

P/ie/lerii!(i Delestrei Dur: 63

piKituni: 59

Piddington. Henry: 104. !o6
pillar of the sky: vii/e Soma, mainstay
of the skv

Pillar of the World: 215. iio, 280
179

pine: 13. 35. 4i
pitii: 63

TTTjYavov: 108. 109. 114
Plaincourault fresco: 178-180: Pi. xxi,
fac. p. 180. 221
Pit'iiroliis 64

- s. sp. iiehroifensis: 64
i’/enrotiis ostrcdiHs: 82
Plinv: 125

Plutarch: loi ftn. 8. 127
Polo. Marco; 2t6
Polyperus hciuliitus: 239

165-171

pot; vide Soma, theories about ident-
ity of, - Gnnidhis sdtivd
Potocki, Waclaw: 193
Pressing Stones: 31
Provence: 180
psaf (Cambodian): 49
p^sat (Korean): 49
psilocybin: 75. 162. 175

Psoralea sp. ; vide Soma, theories
about identity of
P»; 63

punk: 170, 177, 212 ftn. 2. 216, 217.
238

pwp. pupyri (Russian): 49

PiirdMds: 78, 9t

Piirvfl Mimdmsd Sfura: 98

•pHS.Jg: 40
Pushkino: 183
pii;f«nv4 (Maori): 171
piniUM: 90, 97. 107. tit

Qa/ilbash, N. A.: 140, 141

Rabelais. Iranyois: 182. 197
Radwinvi, Tamas; 223. 302-304
(millet): 127-128
rd^t'i-Seitui : 127

Rago/in, Zenaide A.; 123 Itn. 3; 124

bg-

Rahder, Johannes: 49 tin. 2
Rahurkar. V. G.: 139. 140 ftn. i
Raja, C Kunham: 137
Kiijdiiig/idtihc 99. 142
Ramsbottom, John: 179. 2ot
rdH-teni: 132
r«is<J: 63

reit tmis/invins: 72. 73. 74. 220
Regel. Albert: 114, 140. 145 ftn.
Regnaud. P. : 123
Regni. Delli Roman: 136
Reguly. Antal: 157. too. 192 ftn.. [30]
302-304. 306. 307

reindeer and fly-agarics: vide fly-agaric
and reindeer

- and urine: 75-76, ibi, 243, 269
reindeer, driven mad by insects: 195
Renou. Louis: 5, 6. 12, 17. 29. 30. 36,
41. 67. 223

Rheede, Henrik van: 137 ftn. 4

rhubarb: vide Sotna, theories about

identity of, - fermented drink
#

Rice, Benjamin Lewis: 119
rohe d'appiirot-. 41
Rolfe, R. T. and F. W. : 179
Rolland. Eugene: 194, 198, 199
Romany language, soma, sunter: 118
Roth. Rudolph von: 97. 107, ni, 112,
114-117. 119. 121. 144
Rotorua (New Zealand): 171

375

INDEX

Roux, J.-P.: 214 ftn.. 217
Roxburgh. William: 97 ftn. 8, 103,
104. 120

Roy, Joges Candras: 136
Rtd: 48, 54, 58
rtii'5y<i 58

Ruatoria (New Zealand): 171
Rumph, George Everhard; 137 ftn. 4
rubra (Kromb.) Bres.: 73
Ruta sp.: vide Soma, theories about
identity of
Rutaceae: 114
Ryabushinskij. F. P.: 238

Sabarasvami: 98
sacerdotalism: 68, 69
sacred fig (FictJ re/igiostj): 97
sahdsrapdjas: 109
Sakikusa: 90 illus.

Salmony, Alfred: 8i
Salvia sp.; vide Soma, theories about
identity of
Sdma Veda: 106

Samoyed: 10, 154, 165, 166. 167, 207,
280, 286, 287. 310, 346; linguistic
chart, fac. p. 166
Sanchi stupa: 66
S<ircesie»uH<i i)revis{igma: 105 fig.
Sarcostemma sp. : \ide Soma, theories

about identity of

Sarychev, Gavriil Andreevich: 161,

[8] 242-243

Sastri, Chinnaswami: 138
Saxo Grammaticus: 177. 184
Sayana: 96, 98
Schipper, Kristofer M.: 223
Schrader. Otto: 132, 136
Schiibcler, Fredrik Christian: 177.

324. 332, 341. [44] 348-351. 353
Schultes, Richard Evans: 224
Sebillot. Paul: 189 ftn. i
Sedanka: 252: Map C, fac. p. 154
Selkup Samoyed: 152, 166, 282 ftn..

286-287, 315. 317; Map A. fac. p. 154
Sem, Y. A.: vide Brekhman & Sem
serpent: 41. 179, 214. 221
Serratula sp. : vide Soma, theories
about identity of

Setaria sp.: t'ide Soma, theories about
identity of

Severnaya Dvina River: Map A. fac.

p. 154: Map B, fac. p. 154
Shahnameh: 77-78
Shakespere, William: 182, 188
shamanism. Siberian: 10, 68, 153. 163,
174. 208, 213. 220. 326 fif.

Sharma, P. V.: 139
Shelley, Perq' Bysshe: 182
Shih-huang. Shih-huang-ti: 82-86, 91,
210

Shirokogorov, S. M.: 209 ftn.
s/iem-luW: 106, 107: vide also Soma-
creeper
Sindh: 122
liras: 45

Slater, Gilbert: 130
Slavs: 173, 180
1/esma/d: 116, 117

Sljunin, Nikolai: 154, 156, 157, 159.

161, [18] 260-261, 265, 266, 267
Slovakia: 193
Smith, Vincent: 127 ftn. 2
Smythies, John: 175 ftn. i
Societe Mycologique de France: 178-

179

Som: 8, 102, 104, 108
Soma

- and Agni: 39. 5i. 2^4

- and curds: 26-28

- and filtres: 26, 31, 34. 5i'58: Pi-
XII, fac. p. 58

- and fly: 61

- and mystical contemplation: 68-70.
95

- and navel: 16, 29, 48-51. 214

- and Romany: 118

376

INDKX

Soin.i (coMt.)

- and ‘single eye’: 4t'-47: I’l- x, fac.

p. 4«

- and stalk: 44

- and sun (.Silrya): 37-39. 54

- and si'irJ: 15, 9s, 96, 98. 114. 1^3.
134- 137. 138. 144

- and thunder: 4. 44

- and thunderstorm: 39. 40, 54

- and ‘toadstool’: 203

- and udder: 43. 44, 46. 214

- bought for a cow: 24

- -creeper (-vul/f. -lutd, -liiUi. s/iem-

14. 97. 98 IT.. 102-104. 106-108,
no. 123. i2s. >37. I40-14I

- focal point of V'edic religion:

- growing in mountains: 16, 22-24.

- head’ (= cap): 4S-46

- mainstay of sky: >6. 47-48. 54. 58;
Pi. XI. fac. p.

- milk: 98-99; Pi. vn. fac. p. 48

Soma, colour of: 13. 36-42

- definition of: 3

- Dhurtasvami’s description of: too.
107, 1 16

- etymology of: 62

- fig. of: 124: PI. I. fac. p. 34

- legends about origin of: 4. 39, 141-

141

- priests urinating: 25 fT., 176

- reasons for abandonment of: 13,
69 ff.

- roots, leaves, blossoms, seed of: 18.

- substitutes for: 12. 13. 112; in
Brdhmanas. 95 ff.. iii. 122;

- should be red. 97; should be
small, leafless, fleshy, 14, 104

- sacred barley beer. 130

- mead (hydromel). 123

Soma, (cent.)

- synonyms tor: 62. 03

• •

- theories about identity of

- deliberately unpalatable: 112
-distilled spirits: 16-17. 119. 138

- fermented drink:

alcoholic beverage: is. I7. 109.
no. 112, 131. 132. 1.34
.Afghan grapes: 23. 115. >>7.
121. 129. I4<>

beer: m. 117-120, 130, 132
coconut palm: 130
date juice: 130
honey: is-16, 23
mead: 15-16. 123. 141
palmyra palm: 130
rhubarb: 12. 16. 23, 47. 114.
140, i42-t43. 14^
siini: viiie Soma and siini
wild grape wine: 12, 23
wine: 108, 115. 117. 120. 137

- hops: I to. 1 17-1 19. 122

- moon: 69-70, 99. 102. 106, 109.
122, 139

- T/icrnioKicfenum mehi/e: 133. 134

- Asclepias sp.: 103. 104, 107, 109-
iio, 112-115. 121. 123, 127, 129,
132

- Basella sp.: 121. 126

- Bassia sp.: 133. 134

- CiEsalpinia sp.: 143

- Calonyction sp.: 109

- Calotropis sp.: 104, 133

- Ciinnafiis saliva (= C. indicn).
bhang, ganja, hashish, hemp, ma-
rijuana, pot: 12. 16. 114, 126, 128-

129. 132. 135-139. 141. 144. 145

- Centella sp. : 142

- Ceropegia sp.: no

- Cocculus sp.: 98. 142

- Composita;: 114-115

- Conyza sp.: 102

377

INDEX

Soma, theories about identity of (conr.)

- Crinum sp.: 139

- Cynanchium sp.: 103

- E/eusifjefordfinui (millet): 127. 128
-Ephedra sp.: 14, 23. 104. 118. 120-

122. 126. 131-133. 138. 140-143;
105 fig.

- Euphorbia sp.: 112. 114

- Ferula sp.: 114. 116

- Fra.xinus sp. : 143

- Gymnema sp.: 133. 134

- Ipomcca sp.: 109

- Menispermum sp.: 103

- P^deria sp.: 121. 139

- P^ganum harmala: 114

- Periploca sp.: 14. 23. 104. ii7.
119-121. 126. 131. 138. 142-143.
145: 105 fig.

- Psoralea sp.: 143

- Ruta sp. (mountain-rue): 102.
108, 125

- Salvia sp.: 137

- Sarcostemma sp.: 14. 23. 103-
104. 106-112. 115-117. 119-123,
126. 131. 132. 133. 135. 138, 143-
145; 105 fig.

- Serratula sp.: 103

- Setaria sp.: 121. 131

- Tamarii sp.: 118

- Thespesia sp.: 143

- Tinospora sp.: 103, 123

- Umbelliferae: 115

- Vemonia sp.: 98, 102. 104. 106.
121. 125

- Vitex sp.: 126

- Vitis sp.: 143
- two forms of : 25, 26, 54
soma-rdj, somrdj, somardji, somardjin:

98, 102-104, 106, 121, 125
somdatd, somabitd, soma-bttd (creep-
er): 97. 98. 103 flf., IO6-IO8, HO,
123, 125; vide also Soma-creeper
somavalli (creeper): 14, 98, 99.

378

ftn. 5, 103, 1 10. 123; vide also Soma-
creeper
som-vel: 139

Soneda. Masami: 74 ftn. 2
ioHo: 37

Sosva River: Map B, fac. p. 154
Spenser, Edmund: 182, 188
Spiegel. Friedrich: iio
SrtiurusHtru: 97. 100
Srivastava. J. G.: 142. 143 ftn. i
Ssu-ma Ch’ien: 82-85
Star Carr: 169. 170, 238
St. Augustine: 71, 72. 191. 224
St. Francois de Sales: 71. 191
Stein, Aurel: 132, 140
- and rhubarb: 16, 133
Steinitz, W olfgang: 166; - and patjx
cluster, [36] 313, 317
Steller, Georg Wilhelm: 153. 161. 162,
177. 237. 238. I5] 239-240, 250. 337.
346, 347. 348
Stevenson, John: 106
Stietencron, Heinrich von: 21. 69
Stoll. O.: 325 ftn. 2
Strahlenberg. Filip Johann von: 25,

151. 153. 161. 177. [3] 234-235. 322

strainers: ude fibres
‘studs’ of Soma: 59-60
Sudra: 31
Suigetsu Kan-6: 90
smilus: 72

sukara-maddava. silkara-manso: 65
Suleman Mountains: 141
Sullivan, Michael: 80 ftn., 89 ftn., 90
Sumerians: 207. 219
sun: \ide Soma and sun
Sung Dynast)" 72
siird: ude Soma and sura
Surgut: 284: Map B, fac. p. 154
5Hr\’a: Pi. rv. fac. p. 40: vide Soma and

sun

Snsruta. Susruta Samliifd: 99, 100. 125.
126 ftn. 3. 142

INDEX

Sverdrup. [1. U.: 355
99

swallow-wort: 103

sveiiu/irfd: 9f>, 99

Svr Darya: 114: M^P P- *54

Svsola Ri\cr: Map A. lac. p. i‘;4i
Map B, fac. p. 1=54

Taiga: Map B, fac. p. 1S4
Taigonos: 257: Map C. fac. p. IS4
Talicnioio, T.: 201 ftn. i, 202
Taniarix sp.: Soma, theories

about identity ol
T’ang Dynasty: 71. 81
Tao: 49

Taoists: 72, 80, 153. iio

tii/'lo (Magyar for touchwood): 170

Tatra Mountains: 193

Tavda River; Map B. fac. p. is4

Tavgi: los. i6<’. 207. 310

Taylor. Jeremy: 71. 191

Taz River: Map B. fac. p. 154

Tennyson, Alfred: 182

ft’()-H(j»(iC(tll (god’s flesh): 3

Terfezia sp. : 72

Theophrastes: 102 ftn. i

'iVieriHohaclerjMiM iHoInle: vide Soma.

theories about identity of

Thespesia sp.: vide Soma, theories
about identity of

Thiselton-Dyer, W. T.: 117, 118. 120
thunder: vide Soma and thunder
thunderstorm: vide Soma and thun-
derstorm

Tigil : 239. 252, 349 : Map C. fac. p. 1 54
Tikhomirov. V. A.: 338
tinder: 169-170, 171, 238
Tinospora sp.; vide Soma, theories
about identity of

toad, in Lithuanian culture: 189-190
‘toad’, linked with fly-agaric in Chi-
nese: 189

toad', linked with fungi in various
European languages; 186
toad linked to Satan in Old Erench;
189

toad, sinister associations of, in Ger-
manic and Celtic folklore; 187 fl-.

203

to.Klstool: 35, 152, 173. *^3. 1^5-

189. 202. 203. 221
Tobol' River: Map B. lac. p. 1S4
Tongue of the Way; s8: Pi. xin, lac.
p. 58

touchwood: 169. 170, 171. 177. 217.
238, 239

Train. John P. C. ; 176
Transpacific contacts, discussion of;

83, 162-163. 332-333
Tree of Life: 214, 21s. 218. 219. 220
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil: 220

Tremyugan: 281-28?

Tric/ieleiHji mongolicum: 170

Tristram Shandy: 8

inifi: 62
• •

truftles: 72
(rut: 170. 238

Tsingala: 28[-285, 328 ftn. 2: Map B,
fac. p. 1 54

tHe-meuclie: 10, 36 ftn. i. 194. 198
192

tundra: Map. B. fac. p. 154
Tung-fang Shuo: 84
Tungus: 269. 276. 279. 321. 334
Turner, R. L.; 169 ftn.

Turukhan River: Map B, fac. p. 154

Tyler, Varro E.: 142

Tym River: Map B, fac. p. 154

Udder: vide fly-agaric and udder
Ugrians: to. 164. i6s, 192. 281: lin-
guistic chart fac. p. 166
Uhl, L. L.: 131
Uighur: 216

379

INDEX

mil. HWii. iiiiiIiHr: 104, 121
Unibellifera?: vitie Soma, theories
about identity of

Uotila, T. E.: 161. 166: - and pa^x
cluster, [34] 312. 316-317
IpnmWs: 95, 131 ftn. 4
Upsala; 177. i99*ioo, 351
Uralic: 10. 161. 164. 165, 166, 169,207,
208

urine: 25-34. 52-yS. 73*76. 158. 160-
162, 235. 237, 239-240, 243. 249-250.
252. 255 ftn., 257. 259, 261. 263, 267.
269. 275. 276

- and fly-agaric: vide fly-agaric and
urine

- and rain: 30, 276

- and reindeer: vide reindeer and
urine

- and Soma: 25 flf.

-as medico-religious disinfectant:
30. 74

‘urine of drunkenness’: 32
HStliid: 128
Usbekistani: 114
Uftrtilfea: 33

VrtcciHium idigiiiosum: vide bilberry
\ aidika Satiisodhana Mandala: 13

4 4

Viiiimni: 116, 117. i35
vdiiti: 140

\’anderlip, Washington B.: [20] 264
Varmland: 177. 178. 353*354
Varuna: 15. 44. 48. 58
\'asyugan: 281-285: Map. B, fac. p.

154

Vayu: 26, 27, 28. 30, 48, 55, 59
Vernonia sp. : vide Soma, theories
about identity of
‘vesture-of-grand-occasion’: 41
Vinkenoog. Simon: 146 ftn. 2
vinidlt (‘plant’ = Soma): 63, 98
Vitex sp.: vide Soma, theories about
identity of

Vitis sp. : vide Soma, theories about
identity of
\’ladiyostok: 269. 334
yodka: ii, 332 ftn.

Vogul: 10. 154. 157. 164. 165, 178, 191.
192. 193. 231. 281. 285, 305 ff.. 333:
Map A, fac. p. 154: Map B, fac. p. 154
\’ogul Hymns: 302-304: 306-308
Voigt. J. O.: 106

\’olga Finns: vide Finns: also lin-
guistic chart, fac. p. 166
Volga River; Map A, fac. p. 154:

Map B. fac. p. 154
vfstl; 37

Wapaq: 160, 268, 277-278
Waser. Peter G.; 201 ftn. i, 202
W'asson. R. G., and .Aldous Huxley:
146. 147, 175*176

Wasson. R. G., his A. miiscaria theor)%
comment on: 143

- quoting Brahman informants: 104
Wasson. Valentina Pavlovna: 172.
174. 202

Wasson, V. P. and R. G.: 35. 4° fm.,
71 ftn., 146

Water (or Milk) of Life: 214. 216.
220, 271

Waters, Evelyn: 224
Watson, J. Forbes: 108
Watt, George: 67, 104 ftn. 3. 115*117.
119-121

Weintraub. Wiktor: 243
Weng, Wango: 223
West. Edward William: 112
Whitney, William Dwight: 46 ftn. i,
107

Widengren, Geo: 219 ftn.

wild grape wine: vide Soma, theories

about identity of
Wilkens: 114

Wilkins. Charles: 8, 102, 104
Willetts, William: 89 ftn. i

380

1 N D I X

W ilson, Hor.icc l l.ivman: o~, 103
W'inJischniann, I ricJrich: io(>. no
witchcraft. Hiiropean: i"(s
Worth. Dean S.: iS-
Wu. Wvi-ti: 84-80. 88-01

^ajur \'eda, black: 100
Yakut: 241, 271 Im.. .Ui
Vanuina: 95
Yaska: 63, 98
Yiisno, vide Avesta
ve/i»ia: 104. 120

Yelovka: 158, 252 fl'.; Map C. iac.
p. 1^4

Yenisei (river and valley): to, 286-
287: Map A. fac. p. IS4: Map B.
fac. p. 1=54

- Ostyak: Map .A. fac. p. 1^4: Map
B. fac. p. 154
yesc<i: 170

Yetts. Perceval: 89 ftn.. 90
Yiian Dvnastv: 80. S". 92
Yugan: .Map B. lac. p. 1 S 4
^iikagir: 10. 100, 23S. 239. 241. 2~i,
2-2. 2-9, 30s. 334 - 34 ^’: M-»p A.
fac. p. 154; Map C. lac. p. is 4
Yurak Samoyed: IS 4 . 315: Map
A. fac. p. IS4: Map B. fac. p. 1=54

Zaehner. R. C.: 32. 14^

Zarathustra: 19
Zend Avesta: vide Avesta
170. 212 fin. 2, 238
Zimmer. I leinrich: ni
Zoroaster: 19, 33 . 71 . 73 - 74 . loi. i.R'.
1 . 17 . 3.10

Zoroastrianism: 71, 73
ZtoiderscliH'iiHUH: 170
Zvrian: t64-i6e>: Map A, fac. p. 1^4:
Map B, fac. p. iS 4

92871

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